l^liili 


Music  LibV 

ML 

830 

R22Ic 

1673a 


0 

D 

2 

—=. =  ^ 

9 

2 

9 

5 

' 

~^- 

1 

il 

fornia 
mal 

Lty 


MUSIC 

UBRART 


mmmm 


t^ 


c^^A   <:^^^^*^'^ 


OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


w 

II 


.J »«rJN*ia_ 


A  LOST  ART  REVIVED. 


%^%S'?itff%'=»« 


CREMONA 


'5^ 


fclins  antr  ^arnislj, 


I 
H 


CHARLES    READE. 


1873- 


J«C 


'M) 


ALEXANDER  BROUDE,  INC. 

120  WEST  57th  STREF.T  •  new  YORK,  N.  V. 


'Wcx:mzi: 


■K-».-r.  C      .ii^> 


it-  '   ' 


5/ 
5/ 

I 

V: 
5/ 

3/ 

3> 

5i! 
;/ 
:/ 

i 

r/ 
r/ 

:/' 
i2 
;/ 
zi. 
zi. 

1^ 

3Z 

?>: 

V, 

11 

u 
iJ. 

It 

u. 
-:/ 
u 

•4  » 

i 

-(-■» 

:/ 

3/ 

ii/ 

u 

u 

n 

t 

3/ 


Cremona  0iolms. 

FOUR  LETTERS  DESCRIPTIVE 

OF 

THOSE  EXHIBITED   IN   1873 

AT    THE 

§outlt  Kensington  JEuseum. 


GIVING   THE    DATA   FOR    PRODUCING 


Ihc  |vuc  larnishcs 

USED    BY    THE 

GREAT    CREMONA    MAKERS. 


CHARLES    READE. 


A  Facsimile  Reprint 

ALEXANDER   BROUDE,  INC. 

120  WEST  57Tn  stkket  •  new  yokk,  n.  y. 


Mutk 

Lih'.lrv 


K     '  'J. 


INTRODUCTION. 


'HE  following  Letters,  by  Mr.  Charles  Readk,  were 
first  published  in  the  Fall  Mai!  Gazette,  on  the 
19th,  24th,  27th,  and  31st  of  August,  1872,  and 
are  now  reprinted  by  permission  of  the  editor  of  that  paper, 
and  the  proof  sheets  have  passed  through  the  hands  of  their 
author  for  this  publication  of  them. 

To  the  artist  and  connoisseur,  the  information  aftbrded 
in  these  letters  is  of  permanent  value  and  of  the  utmost 
importance,  as  the  exhibition  of  musical  instruments  at 
South  Kensington  in  1872  had  brought  together  some  of 
the  finest  examples  of  stringed  instruments,  made  by  the 
great  Cremona  makers. 

And  it  is  most  fortunate  that  Mr.  Reade  has  devoted 
himself  to  the  task  of  examining  and  criticising  the  four 
stringed  instruments,  being,  as  he  is,  one  of  the  very  best 
judges  we  have  ever  had. 

It  is  only  very  long  experience,  coupled  with  the  ex- 
amination of  the  finest  instruments,  that  enables  the  best 
judges  to  speak  with  certainty  as  to  the  genuineness  of 
violins ;  but  both  artists  and  amateurs  will  have  their  stock 
of  knowledge  largely  increased  by  a  careful  study  of  these 
letters  ;  and  I  trust  this  will  be  accepted  as  my  apology 
for  the  rej)rinting  of  them. 


George  H.   M.   Muntz, 

Birchjield. 

June,  1873. 

154629^) 


Crnuouit  Jiliblc!?, 


Reprinted  from  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  August  10th,  1S72. 


;^  4  XDER  this  heading,  for  want  of  a  better,  let  me  sing  the 
/ j  -I  four  stringed  instruments  that  were  made  in  Italy  from 
^— ^^  about  1560  to  1760,  and  varnished  with  high-coloured 
yet  transj^arent  varnishes,  the  secret  of  which,  known  to  number- 
less families  in  1745,  had  vanished  off  the  earth  by  1760,  and 
has  now  for  fifty  years  baffled  the  laborious  researches  of  violin 
makers,  amateurs,  and  chemists.  That  lost  art  I  will  endeavour 
to  restore  to  the  world  through  the  medium  of  your  paper.  But 
let  me  begin  with  other  points  of  connoisseurship,  illustrating 
them  as  far  as  possible  by  the  specimens  on  show  at  the  South 
Kensington  Museum. 

The  modern  orchestra  uses  four  stringed  instruments,  played 
with  the  bow  :  the  smallest  is  the  king  ;  its  construction  is  a 
marvel  of  art ;  and,  as  we  are  too  apt  to  underrate  familiar 
miracles,  let  me  analyze  this  wooden  paragon,  by  way  of  showing 
what  great  architects  in  wood  those  Italians  were,  who  invented 
this  instrument  and  its  fellows  at  Brescia  and  Bologna.  The 
violin  itself,  apart  from  its  mere  accessories,  consists  of  a  scroll 
or  head,  weighing  an  ounce  or  two,  a  slim  neck,  a  thin  back,  that 
Q  ought  to  be  made  of  Swiss  sycamore,  a  thin  belly  of  Swiss  deal, 
and  sides  of  Swiss  .sycamore  no  tliicker  than  a  si.\pence.  This 
little  wooden  shell  delivers  an  amount  of  sound  that  is  sim])ly 
monstrous;  but,  to  do  that,  it  must  submit  to  a  strain  of  whic  1i 
the  public  has  no  conception.  Let  us  suppose  two  Claimants  to 
take  opposite  ends  of  a  violin-string,  and  to  pull  against  each 
other  with  all  their  weight;  the  tension  of  the  string  so  produced 
would  not  etjual  the  tension  which  is  created  by  the  screw  in 
raising  that  siring  to  concert  pitch.  Consider,  then,  that  not  one 
but  four  strings  tug  night  and  day,  like  a  team  of  demons,  at  the 
wafer-like  sides  of  this  wooden  shell.    Why  does  it  not  collapse  ? 


CRKMONA    FIDDLES 


Well,  it  would  collapse  with  a  crash,  long  before  the  strings 
reached  concert  pitch,  if  the  violin  was  not  a  wonder  inside  as 
well  as  out.  The  problem  was  to  withstand  that  severe  pressure 
without  crippling  the  vast  vibration  by  solidity.  The  inventors 
approached  the  difficulty  thus  :  they  inserted  six  blocks  of  lime, 
or  some  light,  wood  ;  one  of  these  blocks  at  the  lower  end  of  the 
violin,  one  at  the  upper,  and  one  at  each  comer — the  corner 
blocks  very  small  and  triangular ;  the  top  and  bottom  blocks 
much  larger,  and  shaped  like  a  capital  D,  the  straight  line  of  the 
block  lying  close  to  the  sides,  and  the  curved  line  outwards. 
Then  they  slightly  connected  all  the  blocks  by  two  sets  of  linings; 
these  linings  are  not  above  a  quarter  of  an  inch  deep,  I  suppose, 
and  no  thicker  than  an  old  penny  piece,  but  they  connect  those 
six  blocks  and  help  to  distribute  the  resistance. 

Even  so  the  shell  would  succumb  in  time  ;  but  now  the  inventor 
killed  two  birds  with  one  stone  ;  he  cunningly  diverted  a  portion 
of  the  pressure  by  the  very  means  that  were  necessary  to  the 
sound.  He  placed  the  bridge  on  the  belly  of  the  violin,  and 
that  raised  the  strings  out  of  the  direct  line  of  tension,  and 
relieved  the  lateral  pressure  at  the  expense  of  the  belly.  But 
as  the  belly  is  a  weak  arch,  it  must  now  be  strengthened  in  its 
turn.  Accordingly,  a  bass-bar  was  glued  horizontally  to  the  belly 
under  one  foot  of  the  bridge.  This  bass-bar  is  a  very  small  piece 
O  of  deal,  about  the  length  and  half  the  size  of  an  old-fashioned 
lead  pencil,  but,  the  ends  being  tapered  off,  it  is  glued  on  to 
the  belly,  with  a  spring  in  it,  and  supports  the  belly  magically. 
As  a  proof  how  nicely  all  these  things  were  balanced,  the  bass- 
bar  of  Gasparo  da  Salo,  the  Amati,  and  Stradiuarius  being  a 
little  shorter  and  shallower  than  a  modern  bass-bar,  did  admirably 
for  their  day,  yet  will  not  do  now.  Our  raised  concert  pitch  has 
clapped  on  more  tension,  and  straightway  you  must  remove  the 
bass-bar  even  of  Stradiuarius,  and  substitute  one  a  little  longer 
and  deeper,  or  your  Cremona  sounds  like  a  strung  frying-pan. 

Remove  now  from  the  violin,  which  for  two   centuries   has 
endured    this    strain,  the    finger-board,   tail-piece,    tail-pin    and 

screws since  these  are  the  instruments  or  vehicles  of  tension, 

not  materials  of  resistance— and  weigh  the  violin  itself  It 
weighs,  I  suppose  about  twenty  ounces :  and  it  has  fought 
hundredweights  of  pressure  for  centuries.  A  marvel  of  construc- 
tion, it  is  also  a  marvel  of  sound  ;  it  is  audible  farther  off  than 
the  gigantic  pianoforte,  and  its  tones  in  a  master's  hand  go  to  the 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


heart  of  man.  It  can  be  prostituted  to  the  performance  of 
difficulties,  and  often  is ;  but  that  is  not  its  fault.  Genius  can 
make  your  very  heart  dance  with  it,  or  your  eyes  to  fill ;  and 
Niel  Gow  was  no  romancer,  but  only  a  deeper  critic  than  his 
fellows,  when,  being  asked  what  was  the  true  test  of  a  player,  he 
replied,  "A  mon  is  a  player  when  he  can  gar  himsel  greet 
WI  HIS  feddle." 

Asking  forgiveness  for  this  preamble,  I  proceed  to  enquire 
what  country  invented  these  four-stringed  aiid  four-cornered 
instruments  ? 

I  understand  that  France  and  Germany  have  of  late  raised 
some  pretensions.  Connoisseurship  and  etymology  are  both 
against  them.  Etymology  suffices.  The  French  terms  are  all 
derived  from  the  Italian,  and  that  disposes  of  France.  I  will 
go  into  German  pretensions  critically,  if  any  one  will  show  me 
as  old  and  specific  a  German  word  as  viola  and  violino,  and  the 
music  composed  for  those  German  instruments.  "Fiddle"  is 
of  vast  antiquity ;  but  pearshaped,  till  Italy  invented  the  four 
corners,  on  which  sound  as  well  as  beauty  depends. 

The  Order  of  Invention. — Etymology  decides  with  unerring 
voice  that  the  violoncello  was  invented  after  the  violono  or 
double-bass,  and  connoisseurship  proves  by  two  distinct  methods 
that  it  was  invented  after  the  violin,  ist,  the  critical  method  : 
it  is  called  after  the  violon,  yet  is  made  on  the  plan  of  the 
violin,  with  arched  back  and  long  inner  bought.  2nd,  the 
historical  method  :  a  violoncello  made  by  the  inventors  of  the 
violin  is  incomparably  rare,  and  this  instrument  is  disproportion- 
ately rare  even  up  to  the  year  16 10.  Violino  being  a  derivative 
of  viola  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  violin  followed  the 
tenor;  but  this  taken  alone  is  dangerous;  for  viola  is  not  only 
a  specific  term  for  the  tenor,  but  a  generic  name  that  was  in 
Italy  a  hundred  years  before  a  tenor  with  four  strings  was  made. 
To  go  then  to  connoisseurship — I  find  that  I  have  fallen  in  with 
as  many  tenors  as  violins  by  Gasparo  da  Salo,  who  worked  from 
about  1555  to  1600,  and  not  ([uite  so  many  by  Gio  Paolo 
Maggini,  who  began  a  fi^w  years  later.  The  violin  being  the 
king  of  all  these  instruments,  I  think  there  would  not  be  so 
many  tenors  made  as  violins,  when  once  the  violin  had  been 
invented.  Moreover,  between  the  above  dates  came  Gorelli, 
a  composer  and  violinist.  He  would  naturally  create  a  cro])  of 
violins.      Finding   the  tenors   and   violins  of  Gasparo  da   Sale; 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


about  equal  in  number,  I  am  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
tenor  had  an  unfair  start — in  other  words,  was  invented  first. 
I  add  to  this  that  true  four-stringed  tenors  by  Gasparo  da  Salo 
exist,  though  very  rare,  made  with  only  two  corners,  which  is  a 
more  primitive  form  than  any  violin  by  the  same  maker  appears 
in.  For  this  and  some  other  reasons,  I  have  little  doubt  the  viola 
preceded  the  violin  by  a  very  few  years.  \\'hat  puzzles  me  more 
is  to  time  the  violon,  or,  as  we  childishly  call  it  (after  its  known 
descendant),  the  double-bass.  If  I  was  so  presumptuous  as  to 
trust  to  my  eye  alone,  I  should  say  it  was  the  first  of  them  all. 
It  is  an  instrument  which  does  not  seem  to  mix  with  these  four- 
stringed  upstarts,  but  to  belong  to  a  much  older  fiimily — viz. 
the  viole  d'amore,  da  gamba,  &c.  In  the  first  place,  it  has  not 
four  strings  ;  secondly,  it  has  not  an  arched  back,  but  a  flat 
back,  with  a  peculiar  shoulder,  copied  from  the  viola  da  gamba  ; 
thirdly,  the  space  between  the  upper  and  lower  corners  in  the 
early  specimens  is  ludicrously  short.  And  it  is  hard  to  believe 
that  an  eye  which  had  observed  the  graceful  proportions  of 
the  tenor  and  violin  could  be  guilty  of  such  a  wretched  little 
inner-bought  as  you  find  in  a  double-bass  of  Brescia.  Per  contra 
it  must  be  admitted,  first,  that  the  sound-hole  of  a  Brescian 
double-bass  seems  copied  from  the  four-stringed  tribe,  and 
not  at  all  from  the  elder  family ;  secondly,  that  the  violin  and 
tenor  are  instruments  of  melody  or  harmony,  but  the  violon  of 
harmony  only.  This  is  dead  against  its  being  invented  until  after 
the  instruments  to  which  it  is  subsidiary.  Man  invents  only  to 
supply  a  want.  Thus,  then,  it  is.  First,  the  large  tenor,  played 
between  the  knees  ;  then  the  violin,  played  under  the  chin  ;  then 
(if  not  the  first  of  them  all)  the  small  double-bass  :  then,  years 
after  the  violin,  the  violoncello  ;  then  the  full-sized  double-bass; 
then,  longo  inttrvaUoL\  the  small  tenor,  played  under  the  chin. 

However,  I  do  not  advance  these  conclusions  as  infellible. 
The  highest  evidence  on  some  of  these  points  must  surely  lie  in 
manuscript  music  of  the  sixteenth  century,  much  of  which  is 
preserved  in  the  libraries  of  Italy ;  and,  if  Mr.  Hatton  or  any 
musician  learned  in  the  history  of  his  art  will  tell  me  for  what 
stringed  instruments  the  immediate  predecessors  of  Corelli,  and 
Corelli  at  his  commencement,  marked  their  compositions,  I  shall 
receive  the  communication  with  gratitude  and  respect.  I  need 
hardly  say  that  nothing  but  the  MS.  or  the  ediiio  princej^s  is 
evidence  in  so  nice  a  matter. 


CREMONA    KIDDLES 


The  first  known  maker  of  the  true  tenor,  and  jirobably  of  the 
viohn,  was  Gasparo  da  Salo.  The  student  who  has  read  the 
valuable  work  put  forth  by  Monsieur  Fetis  and  Monsieur 
Vuillaume  might  imagine  that  I  am  contradicting  them  here ; 
for  they  quote  as  "luthiers" — antecedent  to  Gasparo  da  Salo — 
Kerlino,  Duiffoprugcar,  LinarolH,  Dardelli,  and  others.  These 
men,  I  grant  you,  worked  long  before  Gasparo  da  Salo  ;  I  even 
offer  an  independent  proof,  and  a  very  simple  one.  I  find  that 
their  genuine  tickets  are  in  Gothic  letters,  whereas  those  of 
Gasparo  da  Salo  are  in  Roman  type ;  but  I  know  the  works  of 
those  makers,  and  they  did  not  make  tenors  nor  violins.  They 
made  instruments  of  the  older  family,  viole  d'amore,  da  gamba, 
&c.  Their  true  tickets  are  all  black-letter  tickets,  and  not  one 
such  ticket  exists  in  any  old  violin,  nor  in  a  single  genuine  tenor. 
The  fact  is  that  the  tenor  is  an  instrument  of  unfixed  dimensions, 
and  can  easily  be  reconstructed  out  of  difterent  viole  made  in 
an  earlier  age.  There  are  innumerable  examples  of  this,  and 
happily  the  Exhibition  furnishes  two.  Hiere  are  two  curious 
instruments  strung  as  tenors,  Nos.  114  and  134  in  the  catalogue: 
one  is  given  to  Joan  Carlino,  and  the  year  1452  ;  the  other  to 
Linaro,  and  1563.  These  two  instruments  were  both  made  by 
one  man,  Ventura  Linarolli,  of  Venice  (misspelt  by  M.  Fe'tis, 
Venturi),  about  the  year  1520.  Look  at  the  enormous  breadth 
between  the  sound  holes ;  that  shows  they  were  made  to  carry 
six  or  seven  strings.  Now  look  at  the  scrolls;  both  of  them 
new,  because  the  old  scrolls  were  primitive  things  with  six  or 
seven  screws ;  it  is  only  by  such  reconstruction  that  a  tenor  or 
violin  can  be  set  up  as  anterior  to  Gasparo  da  Salo.  No.  114 
is,  however,  a  real  gem  of  antiquity ;  the  wood  and  varnish 
exquisite,  and  far  fresher  than  nine  Amatis  out  of  ten.  It  is 
well  worthy  the  special  attention  of  collectors.  It  was  jjlayed 
upon  the  knee. 

There  are  in  the  collection  two  instruments  by  CJasparo  da 
Salo  worth  especial  notice;  a  tenor,  No.  142,  and  a  violono, 
or  primitive  double  bass,  199.  The  tenor  is  one  of  his  later 
make,  yet  has  a  grand  primitive  character.  Observe,  in  par- 
ticular, the  scroll  all  round,  and  the  amazing  inequality  between 
the  bass  sound-hole  and  the  purlling  of  the  belly  ;  this  instru- 
ment and  the  grand  tenor  assigned  to  Maggini,  and  liiil  by 
Madame  Risler,  offer  a  point  of  connoisseurship  worlliy  llu- 
student's  attention.     The  back  of  each  instrument  looks  full  a 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


century  younger  than  the  belly.  But  this  is  illusory.  The  simple 
fact  is  that  the  tenors  of  that  day  when  not  in  use  were  not 
nursed  in  cases,  but  hung  up  on  a  nail,  belly  outwards.  Thus 
the  belly  caught  the  sun  of  Italy,  the  dust,  &c,  and  its  varnish 
was  often  withered  to  a  mere  resin,  while  the  back  and  sides 
escaped.  This  is  the  key  to  that  little  mystery.  Observe  the 
scroll  of  the  violono  199  I  How  primitive  it  is  all  round  :  at  the 
back  a  flat  cut,  in  front  a  single  flute,  copied  from  its  tnie parent, 
the  viola  da  gamba.  This  scroll,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the 
size  and  other  points,  marks  an  instrument  considerably  anterior 
to  No.  200.  As  to  the  other  double-basses  in  the  same  case, 
they  are  assigned  by  their  owners  to  Gasparo  da  Salo,  because 
they  are  double  purfled  and  look  older  than  Cremonese  violins  ; 
but  these  indicia  are  valueless  ;  all  Cremona  and  Milan  double- 
purfled  the  violon  as  often  as  not ;  and  the  constant  exposure 
to  air  and  dust  gives  the  violono  a  colour  of  antiquity  that  is 
delusive.  In  no  one  part  of  the  business  is  knowledge  of 
work  so  necessary.  The  violoni  201-2-3,  are  all  fine  Italian 
instruments.  The  small  violon  202,  that  stands  by  the  side  of 
the  Gasparo  da  Salo  199,  has  the  purfling  of  Andreas  Amatus, 
the  early  sound-hole  of  Andreas  Amatus;  the  exquisite  corners 
and  finish  of  Andreas  Amatus  ;  the  finely  cut  scroll  of  Andreas 
Amatus ;  at  the  back  of  scroll  the  neat  shell  and  square 
shoulder  of  Andreas  Amatus ;  and  the  back,  instead  of  being 
made  of  any  rubbish  that  came  to  hand  after  the  manner  of 
Brescia,  is  of  true  fiddle  wood,  cut  the  bastard  way  of  the  grain, 
which  was  the  taste  of  the  Amati ;  and,  finally,  it  is  varnished 
with  the  best  varnish  of  the  Amati.  '  Under  these  circumstances, 
I  hope  I  shall  not  offend  the  owner  by  refusing  it  the  inferior 
name  of  Gasparo  da  Salo.  It  is  one  of  the  brightest  gems  of 
the  collection,  and  not  easily  to  be  matched  in  Europe. 


CkEMOXA    FIDDLLS 


SECOND   LETTER. 


August  24^/1,  1S72. 


10  PAOLO  MAGGINI  is  represented  at  the  Kensington 
Museum  by  an  excellent  violin,  No.  iii,  very  iine  in 
workmanship  and  varnish,  but  as  to  the  model  a  tritle 
too  much  hollowed  at  the  sides,  and  so  a  little  inferior  to  some 
of  his  violins,  and  to  the  violin  No.  70,  the  model  of  which,  like 
many  of  the  Brescian  school,  is  simple  and  perfect.  (Model, 
as  applied  to  a  violin,  is  a  term  quite  distinct  from  outline.) 
In  No.  70  both  belly  and  back  are  modelled  with  the  simplicity 
of  genius,  by  even  gradation,  from  a  centre,  which  is  the 
highest  part,  down  to  all  the  borders  of  the  instrument.  The 
world  has  come  back  to  this  primitive  model  after  trying  a 
score,  and  prejudice  gives  the  whole  credit  to  Joseph  Guarnerius, 
of  Cremona.  As  to  the  date  of  No.  70,  the  neatness  and, 
above  all,  the  slimness  of  the  sound-hole,  mark,  I  think,  a 
period  slightly  posterior  to  Gasparo  da  Sale.  This  slim  sound - 
hole  is  an  advance,  not  a  retrogression.  The  gaping  sound-holes 
of  Gasparo  da  Salo  and  Maggini  were  their  one  great  error. 
They  were  not  only  ugly  ;  they  lessened  the  ring  by  allowing 
the  vibration  to  escape  from  the  cavity  too  (juickly.  No.  60, 
assigned  to  Duiffoprugcar  and  a  fabulous  antiquity,  was  made 
l)y  some  'prentice  hand  in  the  seventeenth  century ;  but  No.  70 
would  adorn  any  collection,  being  an  old  masterpiece  of  Brescia 
or  Bologna. 

The  School  of  Cremon.a. — Andreas  Amatus  was  more 
than  thirty  years  old,  and  an  accomplished  maker  of  the  older 
viole,  when  the  violin  was  invented  in  Brescia  or  Bologna.  He 
does  not  appear  to  have  troubled  his  head  with  the  new 
instrument  for  some  years;  one  proof  more  that  new  they  were. 
They  would  not  at  first  materially  influence  his  established 
trade  ;  the  old  and  new  family  ran  side  by  side.  Indeed  it  took 
ihe  violin  tribe  two  centuries  to  drive  out  the  viola  da  gamba. 
However,  in  due  course,  Andreas  Amatus  set  to  work  on  violins. 


CRExMONA    FIDDLES 


He  learned  from  the  Brescian  school  the  only  things  they  could 
teach  a  workman  so  superior — viz.  the  four  corners  and  the 
sound-hole.  This  Brescian  sound-hole  stuck  to  him  all  his  days; 
but  what  he  had  learned  in  his  original  art  remained  by  him  too. 
The  collection  contains  three  specimens  of  his  handiwork:  Violin 
202,  Mrs.  Jay's  violin — with  the  modern  head — erroneously 
assigned  to  Antonius  and  Hieronymus  ;  and  violoncello  No. 
183.  There  are  also  traces  of  his  hand  in  the  fine  tenor  139. 
In  the  three  instruments  just  named  the  purfhng  is  composed  in 
best  proportions,  so  that  the  white  comes  out  with  vigour;  it  is 
then  inlaid  with  great  neatness.  The  violoncello  is  the  gem. 
Its  outline  is  grace  itself:  the  four  exquisite  curves  coincide  in 
one  pure  and  serpentine  design.  This  bass  is  a  violin  souffle  ; 
were  it  shown  at  a  distance  it  would  take  the  appearance  of  a 
most  elegant  violin ;  the  best  basses  of  Stradiuarius  alone  will 
stand  this  test.  (Apply  it  to  the  Venetian  masterpiece  in  the 
same  case.)  The  scroll  is  perfect  in  design  and  chiselled  as  by 
a  sculptor;  the  purtiing.  is  quite  as  fine  as  Stradiuarius;  it  is 
violin  purfling,  yet  this  seems  to  add  elegance  without  meanness. 
It  is  a  masterpiece  of  Cremona  all  but  the  hideous  sound-hole 
that  alone  connects  this  master  with  the  Brescian  school. 

His  sons  Antonius  and  Hieronymus  soon  cured  themselves 
of  that  grotesque  sound-hole,  and  created  a  great  school.  They 
chose  better  wood  and  made  richer  varnish,  and  did  many 
beautiful  things.  Nevertheless,  they  infected  Italian  fiddle- 
making  with  a  fatal  error.  They  were  the  first  scoopers. 
Having  improved  on  Brescia  in  outline  and  details,  they 
assumed  too  hastily  that  they  could  improve  on  her  model. 
So  they  scooped  out  the  wood  about  the  sound-holes  and  all 
round,  weakening  the  connection  of  the  centre  with  the  sides 
of  the  belly,  and  checking  the  fulness  of  the  vibration.  The 
German  school  carried  this  vice  much  further,  but  the  Amati 
went  too  far,  and  inoculated  a  hundred  fine  makers  with  a 
wrong  idea.  It  took  Stradiuarius  himself  fifty-six  years  to  get 
entirely  clear  of  it. 

The  brothers  Amati  are  represented  in  this  collection,  first, 
by  several  tenors  that  once  were  noble  things,  but  have  been 
cut  on  the  old  system,  which  was  downright  wicked.  It  is 
cutting  in  the  statutory  sense,  viz.  cutting  and  maiming.  These 
ruthless  men  just  sawed  a  crescent  off  the  top,  and  another  off"  the 
bottom,  and  the  result  is  a  thing  with  the  inner  bought  of  a  giant 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


and  the  upper  and  lower  bought  of  a  dwarf.  If  one  of  these 
noble  instruments  survives  in  England  uncut,  I  implore  the 
owner  to  spare  it ;  to  play  on  a  ;^5  tenor,  with  the  Amad  set 
before  him  to  look  at  while  he  plays.  Luckily  the  scrt)lls  remain 
to  us;  and  let  me  draw  attention  to  the  scroll  of  136.  Look  at 
the  back  of  this  scroll,  and  see  how  it  is  chiselled — the  centre 
line  in  relief,  how  sharp,  distinct,  and  fine  ;  this  line  is  obtained 
by  chiselling  out  the  wood  on  both  sides  with  a  single  tool,  which 
tiddle-makers  call  a  gauge,  and  there  is  nothing  but  the  eye  to 
guide  the  hand. 

There  are  two  excellent  violins  of  this  make  in  the  collection — 
Mrs.  jay's,  and  the  viohn  of  Mr.  C.  J.  Read,  No.  75.  This  latter 
is  the  large  pattern  of  those  makers,  and  is  more  elegant  than 
what  is  technically  called  the  grand  Amati,  but  not  so  striking. 
To  appreciate  the  merit  and  the  defect  of  this  instrument, 
compare  it  candidly  with  the  noble  Stradiuarius  Amatise'  that 
hangs  by  its  side,  numbered  82.  Take  a  back  view  first.  In 
outline  they  are  much  alike.  In  the  details  of  work  the  Amati 
is  rather  superior;  the  border  of  the  Stradiuarius  is  more 
ex(iuisite  ;  but  the  Amati  scroll  is  better  pointed  and  gauged 
more  cleanly,  the  purfling  better  composed  for  effect,  and  the 
way  that  purfling  is  let  in,  especially  at  the  corners,  is  incompar- 
able. On  the  front  view  you  find  the  Amati  violin  is  scooped 
out  here  and  there,  a  defect  the  Stradiuarius  has  avoided.  I 
prefer  the  Stradiuarius  sound-hole /tv  se ;  but,  if  you  look  at 
the  curves  of  these  two  violins,  you  will  observe  that  the  Amati 
sound-holes  are  in  strict  harmony  with  the  curves ;  and  the 
wlujle  thing  the  product  of  one  original  mintl  that  saw  its  way. 

Nicholas  Amatus,  the  son  of  Hieronymus,  owes  his  distinct 
reputation  to  a  single  form  called  by  connoisseurs  the  Grand 
Amati.  'Jhis  is  a  very  large  violin,  with  extravagantly  long 
corners,  extremely  fine  in  all  the  details.  I  do  not  think  it  was 
much  admired  at  the  time.  At  all  events,  he  made  but  kw, 
and  his  copyists,  with  the  exception  of  Francesco  Rugger,  rarely 
selected  that  form  to  imitate.  But  now-a-days  these  violins  are 
almost  wor^liipijcd,  and,  as  the  colleclion  is  in<omi)]cte  without 
one,  I  ho])e  some  gentleman  will  kindly  send  one  in  before  it 
closes.  There  is  also  wanting  an  Amati  i)ass,  and,  if  the  i)ur- 
chaser  of  Mr.  Gillott's  should  feel  disposed  to  supply  that  gap, 
it  would  be  a  very  kind  act.  The  Rugger  family  is  numerous; 
it  is  represented  by  one  violin  (147.) 


14.  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


Leaving  the  makers  of  the  Guarnerius  family — five  in 
number — till  the  last,  we  come  to  Antonius  Stradiuarius.  This 
unrivalled  workman  and  extraordinary  man  was  born  in  1644, 
and  died  in  December,  1737.  There  is  nothing  signed  with 
his  name  before  1667.  He  was  learning  his  business  thoroughly. 
From  that  date  till  1736  he  worked  incessantly,  often  varying 
his  style,  and  always  improving,  till  he  came  to  his  climax, 
represented  in  this  collection  by  the  violins  83  and  87,  and  the 
violoncello  18S. 

He  began  with  rather  a  small,  short-cornered  violin,  which  is 
an  imitation  of  the  small  Amati,  but  very  superior.  He  went 
on,  and  imitated  the  large  Amati,  but  softened  down  the  corners. 
For  thirty  years — from  1672  to  1703 — he  poured  forth  violins 
of  this  pattern  ;  there  are  several  in  this  collection,  and  one 
tenor,  139,  with  a  plain  back  but  a  beautiful  belly,  and  in 
admirable  preservation.  But,  while  he  was  making  these  Amatise 
violins  by  the  hundred,  he  had  nevertheless  his  fits  of  originality, 
and  put  forth  an  anomaly  every  now  and  then ;  sometimes  it 
was  a  very  long,  narrow  violin  with  elegant  drooping  corners, 
and  sometimes,  in  a  happier  mood,  he  combined  these  drooping 
corners  with  a  far  more  beautiful  model.  Of  these  varieties  No.  86 
gives  just  an  indication  ;  no  more.  These  lucid  intervals  never 
lasted  long,  he  was  back  to  his  Amati  next  week.  Yet  they 
left,  I  think,  the  germs  that  broke  out  so  marvellously  in  the 
next  century.  About  the  year  1703  it  seems  to  have  struck  him 
like  a  revelation  that  he  was  a  greater  man  than  his  master. 
He  dropped  him  once  and  for  ever,  and  for  nearly  twenty 
years  poured  forth  with  unceasing  fertility  some  admirable  works, 
of  which  you  have  three  fine  examples,  under  average  wear, 
hard  wear,  and  no  wear— 90,  92,  91.  Please  look  at  the  three 
violins  in  this  order  to  realize  what  I  have  indicated  before — 
that  time  is  no  sure  measure  of  events  in  this  business. 
Nevertheless,  in  all  these  exquisite  productions  there  was  one 
thing  which  he  thought  capable  of  improvement — there  was  a 
slight  residue  of  the  scoop,  especially  at  the  lower  part  of  the 
back.  He  began  to  alter  that  about  1720,  and  by  degrees  went 
to  his  grand  model,  in  which  there  is  no  scoop  at  all.  This, 
his  grandest  epoch,  is  represented  by  the  Duke  of  Cambridge's 
violin,  Mr.  Arkwright's,  and  M.  le  Comte's :  this  last  has  the 
additional  characteristic  of  the  stifter  sound-hole  and  the  wood 
left  broad  in  the  wing  of  the  sound-hole.     One  feature  more 


CREMONA    FIDDLES  I  5 


of  this  his  greatest  epoch :  the  purfling  instead  of  exactly  fol- 
lowing the  corner,  is  pointed  across  it  in  a  manner  completely 
original.  He  made  these  grand  violins  and  a  bass  or  two  till 
about  1729;  after  that  the  grand  model  is  confined  to  his  violins, 
and  the  details  become  inferior  in  finish.  Of  this  there  is  an 
example  in  No.  84,  a  noble  but  rough  violin,  in  parts  of  which 
certain  connoisseurs  would  see,  or  fancy  they  saw,  the  hand  of 
Bergonzi,  or  of  Francesco  or  Homobuono  Stradiuarius.  These 
workmen  undoubtedly  lived,  and  survived  their  father  a  few 
vears.  The\'  seem  to  have  worked  up  his  refuse  wood  after 
his  death ;  but  their  interference  with  his  work  while  alive  has 
been  exaggerated  by  French  connoisseurs.  To  ])ut  a  difficult 
question  briefly:  their  theory  fiiils  to  observe  the  style  Stradiuarius 
was  coming  to  even  in  1727;  it  also  ignores  the  age  of  Stradiuarius 
during  this  his  last  epoch  of  work,  and  says  that  there  exists  no 
old  man^s  work  by  Stradiuarius  himself;  all  this  old  man's  work 
is  done  by  younger  men.  However,  generalities  are  useless  on 
a  subject  so  difficult  and  disputed.  The  only  way  is  to  get  the 
doubtful  violins  or  basses  and  analyze  them,  and  should  the 
Museum  give  a  permanent  corner  to  Cremoncse  instruments, 
this  Francesco  and  Homobitono  question  w^ill  be  sifted  with 
examples.  The  minutiae  of  work  in  Stradiuarius  are  numerous 
and  admirable,  but  they  would  occupy  too  much  space  and  are 
too  well  known  to  need  discourse.  His  varnish  I  shall  treat 
along  with  the  others.  A  few  words  about  the  man.  He  was 
a  tall,  thin  veteran,  always  to  be  seen  with  a  white  leathern 
apron  and  a  nightcap  on  his  head  ;  in  winter  it  was  white  wool, 
and  in  summer  white  cotton.  His  indomitable  industry  had 
amassed  some  fortune,  and  "rich  as  Stradiuarius"  was  a  byword 
at  Cremona,  but  probably  more  current  among  the  fiddle- 
makers  than  the  bankers  and  merchants.  His  price  towards  the 
latter  part  of  his  career  was  four  louis  d'or  for  a  violin  ;  his 
best  customers  Italy  and  Spain.  Mr.  Forster  assures  us  on 
vmimpeachable  authority  that  he  once  sent  some  instruments 
into  England  on  sale  or  return,  and  that  they  were  taken  hack, 
the  merchant  being  unable  to  get  £,$  for  a  violoncello.  Wiiat 
ho  :  Hang  all  the  luiglishmen  of  that  day  who  are  alive  to  meet 
their  deserts  !  However,  the  true  point  of  the  incident  is,  I  think, 
missed  by  the  narrators.  The  fact  is  that,  tlien,  as  now,  England 
wanted  old  Cremonas,  not  new  ones.  That  the  Amati  had  a 
familiar  reputation  here  and  probably  a  ready  market  (an   be 


l6  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


proved  rather  prettily  out  of  the  mouth  of  Dean  Swift.  A 
viohn  was  left  on  a  chair.  A  lady  swept  by.  Her  mantua 
caught  it  and  knocked  it  down  and  broke  it.  Then  the  witty 
Dean  applied  a  line  in  Virgil's  Eclogue — 

Mantua  va;  miserre  niniium  vicina  Cremoniie. 

This  was  certainly  said  during  the  lifetime  of  Stradiuarius,  and 
proves  that  the  Cremona  fiddle  had  a  fixed  reputation  ;  it  also 
proves  that  an  Irishman  could  make  a  better  Latin  pun  than 
any  old  Roman  has  left  behind  him.  Since  I  have  diverged 
into  what  some  brute  calls  anec-dotage,  let  me  conclude  this 
article  with  one  that  is  at  all  events  to  the  point,  since  it  tells 
the  eventful  history  of  an  instrument  now  on  show. 

The  Romance  of  Fiddle-Dealing. — Nearly  fifty  years  ago 
a  gaunt  Italian  called  Luigi  Tarisio  arrived  in  Paris  one  day 
with  a  lot  of  old  Italian  instruments  by  makers  w'hose  names 
were  hardly  known.  The  princijjal  dealers,  whose  minds  were 
narrowed,  as  is  often  the  case,  to  three  or  four  makers  would 
not  deal  with  him.  M.  Georges  Chanot,  younger  and  more 
intelligent,  purchased  largely,  and  encouraged  him  to  return. 
He  came  back  next  year  with  a  better  lot ;  and  yearly  increasing 
his  funds,  he  flew  at  the  highest  game ;  and  in  the  course  of 
thirty  years  imported  nearly  all  the  finest  specimens  of 
Stradiuarius  and  Guarnerius  France  possesses.  He  was  the 
greatest  connoisseur,  that  ever  lived  or  ever  can  live,  because  he 
had  the  true  mind  of  a  connoisseur  and  vast  opportunities.  He 
ransacked  Italy  before  the  tickets  in  the  violins  of  Francesco 
Stradiuarius,  Alexander  Gagliano,  Lorenzo  Gaudagnini, 
Giofredus  Cappa,  Gobetti,  Morgilato  Morella,  Antonio 
IMariani,  Santo  Magini,  and  Matteo  Benti  of  Brescia,  Michel 
Angelo  Bergonzi,  Montagnana,  Thomas  Balestrieri,  Storioni, 
Vicenzo  Rugger,  the  Testori,  Petrus  Guarnerius,  of  Venice,  and 
full  fifty  more,  had  been  tampered  with,  that  every  brilliant 
masterpiece  might  be  assigned  to  some  popular  name.  To  his 
immortal  credit,  he  fought  against  this  mania,  and  his  motto  was 
"A  tout  seigneur  tout  honneur."  The  man's  whole  soul  was  in 
fiddles.  He  was  a  great  dealer,  but  a  greater  amateur.  He 
had  gems  by  him  no  money  would  buy  from  him.  No.  91  was 
one  of  them.  But  for  his  death  you  would  never  have  cast  eyes 
on  it.  He  has  often  talked  to  me  of  it ;  but  he  would  never 
let  me  see  it,  for  fear  I  should  tempt  him. 


t'REMOXA    FIDDLES 


Well,  one  day  Georges  Chanot,  Senior,  who  is  perhai)s  the 
best  judge  of  violins  left,  now  Tarisio  is  gone,  made  an  excursion 
to  Spain,  to  see  if  he  could  find  anything  there.  He  found 
mighty  little.  But,  coming  to  the  shop  of  a  fiddle-maker,  one 
Ortega,  he  saw  the  belly  of  an  old  bass  hung  up  with  other  things. 
Chanot  rubbed  his  eyes,  and  asked  himself,  was  he  dreaming? 
the  belly  of  a  Stradiuarius  bass  roasting  in  a  shop-window  !  He 
went  in,  and  very  soon  bought  it  for  about  forty  francs.  He 
then  ascertained  that  the  bass  belonged  to  a  lady  of  rank.  Tlie 
belly  was  full  of  cracks ;  so,  not  to  make  two  bites  of  a  cherry, 
Ortega  had  made  a  nice  new  one.  Chanot  carried  this  precious 
fragment  home  and  hung  it  up  in  his  shop,  but  not  in  tlie  window, 
for  he  is  too  good  a  judge  not  to  know  the  sun  will  take  all 
the  colour  out  of  that  maker's  varnish.  Tarisio  came  in  from 
Italy,  and  his  eye  lighted  instantly  on  the  Stradiuarius  belly. 
He  pestered  Chanot  till  the  latter  sold  it  him  tor  a  thousand 
francs  and  told  him  where  the  rest  was.  Tarisio  no  sooner 
knew  this  than  he  flew  to  Madrid.  He  learned  from  Ortega 
where  the  lady  lived,  and  called  on  her  to  see  it.  "Sir,"  says 
the  lady,  "it  is  at  your  disposition.'"'  That  does  not  mean  much 
in  Spain.  When  he  offered  to  buy  it,  she  coquetted  with  him, 
said  it  had  been  long  in  her  family ;  money  could  not  replace 
a  thing  of  that  kind,  and  in  short,  she  put  on  the  screw,  as  she 
t/ioiight,  and  sold  it  him  for  about  four  thousand  francs.  A\'hat 
he  did  with  the  Ortega  belly  is  not  known — perhaps  sold  it  to 
some  person  in  the  tooth-pick  trade.  He  sailed  exultant  for 
Paris  with  the  Spanish  bass  in  a  case.  He  never  let  it  out  of 
his  sight.  The  pair  were  caught  by  a  storm  in  the  Hay  of  Biscay. 
The  ship  rolled ;  Tarisio  clasped  his  bass  tight,  and  trembled. 
It  was  a  terrible  gale,  and  for  one  whole  day  they  were  in  real 
danger.  Tarisio  spoke  of  it  to  me  with  a  shudder.  I  will  give 
you  his  real  words,  for  they  struck  me  at  the  time,  and  I  have 
often  thought  of  them  since. 

"Ah,  my  poor  Mr.   Reade,  the  bass  or  Spaix  was  all 

BUT    LOST." 

\\as  not  this  a  true  connoisseur?  a  genuine  enthusiast?  Ob- 
serve 1  there  was  also  an  ephemeral  insect  called  Tuigi  Tarisio, 
who  would  have  gone  down  with  the  bass :  but  that  made  no 
impression  on  his  mind.      Dc  mhiiniis  iion  curat  Jjnioviciis. 

He  got  it  safe  to  Paris.  A  certain  high  priest  in  these  mysteries, 
called  Vuillaume,  with  the  help  of  a  sacred  vessel,  called  the 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


glue-pot,  soon  re-wedded  the  back  and  sides  to  the  belly,  and 
the  bass  being  now  just  what  it  was  when  the  aiffian  Ortega  put 
his  finger  in  the  pie,  was  sold  for  20,000  fr.     (^800.) 

I  saw  the  Spanish  bass  in  Paris  twenty-two  years  ago,  and 
you  can  see  it  any  day  this  month  you  like  :  for  it  is  the  identical 
violoncello  now  on  show  at  Kensington,  numbered  188.  Who 
would  divine  its  separate  adventures,  to  see  it  all  reposing  so 
calm  and  uniform  in  that  case — "Post  tot  naufragia  tutus." 


CREMONA    FIDDLES  1 9 


THIRD    LETTER. 


August  21th,  1812. 


m 


'HE  Spanish  bass"  is  of  the  grand  pattern  and  exquisitely 
,  made  :  the  sound-hole,  rather  shorter  and  stiller  than 
in  Stradiuarius's  preceding  epoch,  seems  stamped  out 
of  the  wood  with  a  blow,  so  swiftly  and  surely  is  it  cut.  The 
purfling  is  perfection.  Look  at  the  section  of  it  in  the  upper 
bought  of  the  back.  The  scroll  extremely  elegant.  The  belly 
is  a  beautiful  piece  of  wood.  The  back  is  of  excellent  quality, 
but  mean  in  the  figure.  The  sides  are  cut  the  wrong  way  of  the 
grain  ;  a  rare  mistake  in  this  master.  The  varnish  sweet,  clear, 
orange-coloured,  and  full  of  fire.  Oh,  if  this  varnish  could  but  be 
laid  on  the  wood  of  the  Sanctus  Seraphin  bass  !  The  belly  is 
full  of  cracks,  and  those  cracks  have  not  been  mended  without 
several  lines  of  modern  varnish  clearly  visible  to  the  practised  eye. 
Some  years  ago  there  was  a  Stradiuarius  bass  in  Ireland.  I 
believe  it  was  presented  by  General  Oliver  to  Signor  Piatti.  I 
never  saw  it ;  but  some  people  tell  me  that  in  wood  and  varnish 
it  surpasses  the  Spanish  bass.  Should  these  lines  meet  Signor 
Piatti"s  eye,  I  will  only  say  that,  if  he  would  allow  it  to  be  placed 
in  the  case  for  a  single  week,  it  would  be  a  great  boon  to  the 
admirers  of  these  rare  and  noble  pieces,  and  very  instructive. 
By  the  side  of  the  Spanish  bass  stands  another,  inferior  to  it  in 
model  and  general  work,  superior  to  it  in  preservation,  No. 
187.  The  unhappy  parts  are  the  wood  of  the  sides  and  the 
scroll.  Bad  wood  kills  good  varnish.  The  scroll  is  superb  in 
workmanship  ;  it  is  more  finely  cut  at  the  back  part  than  the 
scroll  of  the  Spanish  bass  ;  but  it  is  cut  out  of  a  pear  tree,  and 
that  abominable  wood  gets  uglier  if  possible  under  varnish,  and 
lessens  the  effect  even  of  first-class  work.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  back  and  belly,  where  the  varnish  gels  fair  play,  are  beautifiil. 
The  belly  is  incomparable.  Here  is  the  very  finest  ruby  varnish 
of  Stradiuarius,  as  pure  as  the  day  it  was  laid  on.  The  back  was 
the  .same  colour  originally,  but  has  been  reduced  in  tint  by  the 
friction  this  part  of  a  bass  encounters  when  played  on.     Tiic 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


varnish  on  the  back  is  chipped  all  over  in  a  manner  most 
picturesque  to  the  cultivated  eye ;  only  //  must  go  no  farther. 
I  find  on  examination  that  these  chips  have  all  been  done  a 
good  many  years  ago,  and  I  can  give  you  a  fair,  though  of  course 
not  an  exact,  idea  of  the  process.  Methinks  I  see  an  old 
gentleman  seated  sipping  his  last  glass  of  port  in  the  dining-room 
over  a  shining  table,  whence  the  cloth  was  removed  for  dessert. 
He  wears  a  little  powder  still,  though  no  longer  the  fashion  ; 
he  has  no  shirt-collar,  but  a  roll  of  soft  and  snowy  cambric 
round  his  neck,  a  plain  gold  pin,  and  a  frilled  bosom.  He  has 
a  white  waistcoat — snow-white  like  his  linen :  he  washes  at 
home — and  a  blue  coat  with  gilt  buttons.  Item,  a  large  fob  or 
watch-pocket,  whence  bulges  a  golden  turnip,  and  puts  forth 
seed,  to  wit  a  bunch  of  seals  and  watch-keys,  with  perhaps  a 
gold  pencil-case.  One  of  these  seals  is  larger  than  the  others  : 
the  family  arms  are  engraved  on  it,  and  only  important  letters 
are  signed  with  it.  He  rises  and  goes  to  the  drawing-room. 
The  piano  is  opened  ;  a  servant  brings  the  Stradiuarius  bass  from 
the  study ;  the  old  gentleman  takes  it  and  tunes  it,  and,  not  to 
be  bothered  with  his  lapels,  buttons  his  coat,  and  plays  his  part 
in  a  quartett  of  Haydn  or  a  symphony  of  Corelli,  and  smiles 
as  he  plays,  because  he  really  loves  music,  and  is  not  over- 
weighted. Your  modern  amateur,  with  a  face  of  justifiable 
agony,  ploughs  the  hill  of  Beethoven  and  harrows  the  soul  of 
Reade.  Nevertheless,  my  smiling  senior  is  all  the  time  bringing 
the  finest  and  most  delicate  varnish  of  Stradiuarius  into  a  series 
of  gentle  collisions  with  the  following  objects  : — First,  the  gold 
pin  ;  then  the  two  rows  of  brass  buttons  ;  and  last,  not  least, 
the  male  chatelaine  of  the  period.  There  is  an  oval  chip  just 
off  the  centre  of  this  bass  ;  I  give  the  armorial  seal  especial 
credit  for  that :  "a  tout  Seigneur  tout  honneur." 

Take  another  specimen  of  eccentric  wear:  the  red  Stradiuarius 
kit  88.  The  enormous  oval  wear  has  been  done  thus  : — It  has 
belonged  to  a  dancing-master,  and  he  has  clapped  it  under  his 
arm  fifty  times  a  day  to  show  his  pupils  the  steps. 

The  Guarnerius  family  consisted  of  Andreas,  his  two  sons 
Petrus  and  Joseph,  his  grandson  Petrus  Guarnerius  of  Venice, 
and  Joseph  Guarnerius,  the  greatest  of  the  family,  whom  Mons. 
Fetis  considers  identical  with  Guiseppe  Antonio,  born  in  1683. 
There  are,  however,  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  this  theory, 
which  I  will  reserve  for  my  miscellaneous  remarks. 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


Andreas  Guarnerius  was  the  closest  of  all  the  copyists  of  the 
Amati;  so  close,  indeed,  that  his  genuine  violins  are  nearly  always 
sold  as  Amati.  Unfortunately  he  imitated  the  small  pattern. 
His  wood  and  varnish  are  exactly  like  Amati ;  there  is,  however, 
a  peculiar  way  of  cutting  the  lower  wing  of  his  sound-holes  that 
betrays  him  at  once.  ^Vhen  you  find  him  with  the  border  high 
and  broad,  and  the  purfling  grand,  you  may  suspect  his  son 
Petrus  of  helping  him,  for  his  own  style  is  petty.  His  basses 
few,  but  fine.  Petrus  Guarnerius  of  Cremona  makes  volins 
prodigiously  bombes,  and  more  adapted  to  grumbling  inside  than 
singing  out ;  but  their  appearance  magnificent :  a  grand  deep 
border,  very  noble,  sound-hole  and  scroll  Amatise,  and  a  deep 
orange  varnish  that  nothing  can  surpass.  His  violins  are 
singularly  scarce  in  England.  I  hope  to  see  one  at  the 
Exhibition  before  it  closes. 

Joseph,  his  brother,  is  a  thorough  original.  His  violins  are 
narrowed  under  the  shoulder  in  a  way  all  his  own.  As  to  model, 
his  fiddles  are  bombes  like  his  brother's  ;  and,  as  the  centre  has 
generally  sunk  from  weakness,  the  violin  presents  a  great  bump 
at  the  upper  part  and  anodier  at  the  lower.  The  violin  97  is 
by  this  maker,  and  is  in  pure  and  perfect  condition  ;  but  the  wood 
having  no  figure,  the  beauty  of  the  varnish  is  not  appreciated. 
He  is  the  king  of  the  varnishers.  He  was  the  first  man  at 
Cremona  that  used  red  varnish  oftener  than  pale,  and  in  that 
respect  was  the  teacher  even  of  Stradiuarius.  When  this  maker 
deviates  from  his  custom  and  puts  really  good  hare-wood  into 
a  violin,  then  his  glorious  varnish  gets  fair  play,  and  ?ioiki/ig 
can  live  beside  him.  The  other  day  a  violin  of  this  make  with 
fine  wood,  but  undersized,  was  put  up  at  an  auction  without  a 
name.  I  suppose  nobody  knew  the  maker,  for  it  was  sold  on 
its  merits,  and  fetched  ^160.  I  brought  that  violin  into  the 
country ;  gave  a  dealer  ^24  for  it  in  Paris. 

He  made  a  very  few  flatter  violins,  that  are  worth  any  money. 

Petrus  Guarnerius,  the  son  of  this  Joseph,  learned  his  business 
in  Cremona,  but  migrated  early  to  Venice.  He  worked  there 
from  1725  to  1746.  He  made  most  beautiful  tenors  and  basses, 
but  was  not  so  happy  in  his  violins.  His  varnish  very  fine,  but 
paler  than  his  fathers. 

Joseph  Guarnerius,  of  Cremona,  made  violins  from  about  1725 
to  1745.  His  first  epoch  is  known  only  to  connoisseurs;  in 
uutline  it   is   licwed   out.   under   the   shouldrr   like  tlu'   fuUlK's   ol 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


Joseph,  son  of  Andrew,  who  was  then  an  old  fiddle-maker ;  but 
the  7nodeI  all  his  own  ;  even,  regular,  and  perfect.  Sound-hole 
long  and  characteristic,  head  rather  mean  for  him ;  he  made  but 
i^w  of  these  essays,  and  then  went  to  a  different  and  admirable 
style,'  a  most  graceful  and  elegant  violin,  which  has  been  too 
loosely  described  as  a  copy  of  Stradiuarius  ;  it  is  not  that,  but 
a  fine  violin  in  which  a  downright  good  workman  profits  by  a 
great  contemporary  artist's  excellences,  yet  without  servility. 
These  violins  are  not  longer  nor  stiffer  in  the  inner  bought  than 
Stradiuarius ;  they  are  rather  narrow  than  broad  in  the  central 
part,  the  sound-holes  exquisitely  cut,  neither  too  stiff  nor  too 
flowing,  the  wood  between  the  actual  hole  and  the  curv^e  of  the 
sound-hole  remarkably  broad.  The  scroll  grandiose,  yet  well 
cut,  and  the  nozzle  of  the  scroll  and  the  little  platform  below 
cut  after  the  plan  of  Stradiuarius,  though  not  so  well.  They 
are  generally  purfled  through  both  pegs,  like  Stradiuarius  ;  the 
wood  very  handsome,  varnish  a  rich  golden  brown.  I  brought 
three  of  this  epoch  into  the  country ;  one  was  sold  the  other  day 
at  Christie's  for  ^260,  (bought,  I  believe,  by  Lord  Dunmore,) 
and  is  worth  ^350  as  prices  go.  This  epoch,  unfortunately, 
is  not  yet  represented  in  the  collection. 

The  next  epoch  is.  nobly  represented  by  93,  94,  95.  All 
these  violins  have  the  broad  centre,  the  grand  long  inner  bought, 
stiffish  yet  not  ungraceful,  the  long  and  rather  upright  sound-hole, 
but  well  cut;  the  grand  scroll,  cut  all  in  a  hurry,  but  noble. 
93  is  a  little  the  grander  in  make  I  think ;  the  purfling  being  set 
a  hair's  breadth  farther  in,  the  scroll  magnificent ;  but  observe 
the  haste — the  deep  gauge-marks  on  the  side  ot  the  scroll ; 
here  is  already  an  indication  of  the  slovenliness  to  come : 
varnish  a  lovely  orange,  wood  beautiful ;  two  cracks  in  the 
belly,  one  from  the  chin-mark  to  the  sound-hole.  94  is  a  violin 
of  the  same  make,  and  without  a  single  crack ;  the  scroll  is  not 
quite  so  grandiose  as  93,  but  the  rest  incomparable ;  the  belly 
pure  and  beautiful,  the  back  a  picture.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  room  that  equals  in  picturesqueness  the  colours  of  this 
magnificeni  piece ;  time  and  fair-play  have  worn  it  thus  ;  first, 
there  is  a  narrow  irregular  line  of  wear  caused  by  the  hand  in 
shifting,  next,  then  comes  a  sheet  of  ruby  varnish,  with  no  wear 
to  speak  of;  then  an  irregular  piece  is  worn  out  the  size  of  a 
sixpence;  then  more  varnish;  then,  from  the  centre  downwards, 
a  grand  wear,  the  size  and  shape  of  a  large  curving  pear ;  this 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


ends  in  a  broad  zigzag  ribbon  of  varnish,  and  then  comes  llie 
bare  wood  caused  by  the  friction  in  playing,  but  higher  up  to  the 
left  a  score  of  great  bold  chips.  It  is  the  very  beau-ideal  of 
the  red  Cremona  violin,  adorned,  not  injured,  by  a  century's 
fair  wear.  No.  95  is  a  roughish  specimen  of  the  same  epoch, 
not  so  brilliant,  but  with  its  own  charm.  Here  the  gauge-marks 
of  impatience  are  to  be  seen  in  the  very  border,  and  I  should 
have  expected  to  see  the  stiff-throated  scroll,  for  it  belongs  to 
this  form. 

The  next  epoch  is  rougher  still,  and  is  generally,  but  not 
always,  higher  built,  with  a  stiff-throated  scroll,  and  a  stiff, 
quaint  sound-hole  that  is  the  delight  of  connoisseurs  ;  and  such 
is  the  force  of  genius  that  I  believe  in  our  secret  hearts  we  love 
these  impudent  fiddles  best — they  are  so  full  of  chic.  After  that, 
he  abuses  the  patience  of  his  admirers  ;  makes  his  fiddles  of  a 
preposterous  height,  with  sound-holes  long  enough  for  a  tenor; 
but,  worst  of  all,  indifferent  wood  and  downright  l)ad  varnish — 
varnish  worthy  only  of  the  Guadagnini  tribe,  and  not  laid  on  by 
the  method  of  his  contem])oraries.  Indeed,  I  sadly  fear  it  was 
this  great  man  who,  by  his  ill  example  in  1740-45,  killed  the 
varnish  of  Cremona.  Thus — to  show  the  range  of  the  subject — • 
out  of  five  distinct  epochs  in  the  work  of  this  extraordinary  man 
we  have  only  one  and  a  half,  so  to  speak,  represented  even  in 
this  noble  collection — the  greatest  by  far  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  But  I  hope  to  see  all  these  gaps  filled,  and  also  to 
see  in  the  collection  a  Stradiuarius  violin  of  that  kind  I  call 
the  dolphin-backed.  This  is  a  mere  matter  of  picturescpie  wear. 
When  a  red  Stradiuarius  violin  is  made  of  soft  velvety  wood,  and 
the  varnish  is  just  half  worn  off  the  back  in  a  rough  triangular 
form,  that  produces  a  certain  beauty  of  light  and  shade  which 
is  in  my  opinion  the  iic phis  ultra.  These  violins  are  rare.  I 
never  had  but  two  in  my  life.  A  very  obliging  dealer,  who 
knows  my  views,  has  promised  his  co-ojieration,  and  I  think 
England,  which  cuts  at  present  rnlher  too  ])()()r  a  figure  in 
respect  of  this  maker,  will  add  a  dol['hin-l)acked  Stradiuarius 
to  the  collection  before  it  is  dispersed. 

Carlo  Bergonzi,  if  you  go  by  gauging  and  jnu-fiing,  is  of 
course  an  inferior  make  to  the  Amati  ;  but,  if  that  is  to  be  the 
line  of  reasoning,  he  is  su])erior  to  jose])h  (luarneriiis.  \\'c 
ought  to  be  in  one  story;  if  Joseph  (hiarnerius  is  the  second 
maker  of  Cremona,  it  follows  that  Carlo   Ik-rgonzi  is  the  third. 


24  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


Fine  size,  reasonable  outline,  flat  and  even  model,  good  wood, 
work,  and  varnish,  and  an  indescribable  air  of  grandeur  and 
importance.  He  is  quite  as  rare  as  Joseph  Guamerius. 
Twenty-five  years  ago  I  ransacked  Europe  for  him — for  he  is 
a  maker  I  always  loved — and  I  could  obtain  but  few.  No. 
109  was  one  of  them,  and  the  most  remarkable,  take  it 
altogether.  In  this  one  case  he  has  really  set  himself  to  copy 
Stradiuarius.  He  has  composed  his  purfling  in  the  same 
proportions,  which  was  not  at  all  his  habit.  He  has  copied 
the  sound-hole  closely,  and  has  even  imitated  that  great  man's 
freak  of  delicately  hollowing  out  the  lower  wood-work  of  the 
sound-hole.  The  varnish  of  this  violin  is  as  fine  in  colour  as 
any  pale  Stradiuarius  in  the  world,  and  far  superior  in  body  to 
most  of  them ;  but  that  is  merely  owing  to  its  rare  preservation. 
Most  of  these  pale  Stradiuariuses,  and  especially  Mrs.  Jay's  and 
No.  86,  had  once  varnish  on  them  as  beautiful  as  is  now  on  this 
chef-iViXUvre  of  Carlo  Bergonzi. 

Monsieur  Fetis  having  described  Michel  Angelo  Bergonzi  as 
a  pupil  of  Stradiuarius,  and  English  writers  having  blindly 
followed  him,  this  seems  a  fit  place  to  correct  that  error. 
Michel  Angelo  Bergonzi  was  the  son  of  Carlo ;  began  to  work 
after  the  death  of  Stradiuarius,  and  imitated  nobody  but  his 
father — and  him  vilely.  His  corners  are  not  comers,  but  peaks. 
See  them  once,  you  never  forget  them ;  but  you  pray  Heaven 
you  may  never  see  them  again.  His  tickets  runs,  "Michel 
Angelo  Bergonzi  figlio  di  Carlo,  fece  nel  Cremona,"  from  1750 
to  1780.  Of  Nicholas,  son  of  Michel  Angelo,  I  have  a  ticket 
dated  1796,  but  he  doubtless  began  before  that  and  worked  till 
1830.  He  lived  till  1838,  was  well  known  to  Tarisio,  and  it 
is  from  him  alone  we  have  learned  the  house  Stradiuarius  lived 
in.  There  is  a  tenor  by  Michel  Angelo  Bergonzi  to  be  seen 
at  Mr.  Cox,  the  picture  dealer.  Pall-mall,  and  one  by  Nicholas, 
in  Mr.  Chanot's  shop,  in  Wardour-street.  Neither  of  these 
Bergonzi  knew  how  their  own  progenitor  varnished  any  more 
than  my  housemaid  does. 

Stainer,  a  mixed  maker.  He  went  to  Cremona  too  late  to 
unlearn  his  German  style,  but  he  moderated  it,  and  does  not 
scoop  so  badly  as  his  successors.  The  model  of  his  tenor, 
especially  the  back,  is  very  fine.  The  peculiar  defect  of  it  is 
that  it  is  purfled  too  near  the  border,  which  always  gives 
meanness.     This  is  the  more  unfortunate,  that  really  he  was 


CREMONA    FIDDLES  25 


freer  from  this  defect  than  his  imitators.  He  learned  to 
varnish  in  Cremona,  but  his  varnish  is  generally  paler  than  the 
native  Cremonese.  This  tenor  is  exceptional :  it  has  a  rose- 
coloured  varnish  that  nothing  can  surpass.     It  is  lovely. 

Sanctus  Seraphin. — This  is  a  true  Venetian  maker.  The 
Venetian  born  was  always  half-Cremonese,  half-Gemian.  In 
this  bass,  which  is  his  uniform  style,  you  see  a  complete  mastery 
of  the  knife  and  the  gauge.  Neither  the  Stradiuarius  nor  the 
Amati  ever  purfled  a  bass  more  finely,  and,  to  tell  the  truth,  rarely 
so  finely.  But  oh  !  the  miserable  scroll,  the  abominable  sound 
hole  !  Here  he  shows  the  cloven  foot,  and  is  more  German 
tlian  Stainer.  Uniformity  was  never  carried  so  far  as  by  this 
natty  workman  ;  one  violin  exactly  like  the  next ;  one  bass  the 
image  of  its  predecessor.  His  varnish  never  varies.  It  is 
always  slightly  opaque.  This  is  observed  in  his  violins,  but  it 
escapes  detection  in  his  basses,  because  it  is  but  slight,  after 
all,  and  the  wonderful  wood  he  put  into  his  basses,  shines 
through  that  slight  defect  and  hides  it  from  all  but  practised 
eyes.  He  had  purchased  a  tree  or  a  very  lai-ge  log  of  it ;  for 
this  is  the  third  bass  I  have  seen  of  this  wonderful  wood. 
Now-a-days  you  might  cut  down  a  forest  of  sycamore  and  not 
match  it ;  those  veteran  trees  are  all  gone.  He  has  a  feature  all 
to  himself;  his  violins  have  his  initials  in  ebony  let  into  the  belly 
under  the  broad  part  of  the  tail-piece.  This  natty  Venetian  is 
the  only  old  violin  maker  I  know  who  could  write  well.  The 
others  bungle  that  part  of  the  date  they  are  obliged  to  write  in 
the  tickets.  This  one  writes  it  in  a  hand  like  coi)per  plate, 
whence  I  suspect  he  was  himself  the  engraver  of  his  ticket, 
which  is  unicjue.  It  is  four  times  the  size  of  a  Cremonese 
ticket,  and  has  a  scroll  border  comiX)sed  thus  : — The  sides  of 
a  paralellogram  are  created  by  four  solid  lines  like  sound-holes; 
these  are  united  at  the  sides  by  two  leaves  and  at  the  centre 
by  two  shells.  Another  serpentine  line  is  then  coiled  all  round 
them  at  short  intervals,  and  within  the  parallelogram  the  ticket 
is  printed  : — 

Sanctus  Seraphin  Utinensis, 
Fecit  Vcnctiis,  anno  17- — . 

The  Mighty  Venetian. — I  come  now  to  a  truly  remarkable 
piece,  a  basso  di  camera  that  comes  modestly  into  the  room  willi- 
out  a  name,  yet  there  is  nothing  except  No.  91  that  sends  sucli 


2  6  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


a  thrill  through  the  true  connoisseur.  The  outline  is  grotesque 
but  original,  the  model  full  and  swelling  but  not  bumpy,  the 
wood  detestable ;  the  back  is  hare-wood,  but  without  a  vestige 
of  figure  ;  so  it  might  just  as  well  be  elm  :  the  belly,  instead  of 
being  made  of  mountain  deal  grown  on  the  sunny  side  of  the 
Alps,  is  a  piece  of  house  timber.  Now  these  materials  would 
kill  any  other  maker ;  yet  this  mighty  bass  stands  its  ground. 
Observe  the  fibre  of  the  belly  ;  here  is  the  deepest  red  varnish 
in  the  room,  and  laid  on  with  an  enormous  brush.  Can  you 
see  the  fibre  through  the  thi-n  varnish  of  Sanctus  Seraphin  as 
plainly  as  you  can  see  the  fibre  through  this  varnish  laid  on  as 
thick  as  paint  ?  So  much  for  clearness.  Now  for  colour,  Let 
the  student  stand  before  this  bass,  get  the  varnish  into  his  mind, 
and  then  walk  rapidly  to  any  other  instrument  in  the  room  he 
has  previously  determined  to  compare  with  it.  This  will  be  a 
revelation  to  him  if  he  has  eyes  in  his  head. 

And  this  miracle  comes  in  without  a  name,  and,  therefore, 
is  passed  over  by  all  the  sham  judges.  And  why  does  it  come 
without  a  name  ?  I  hear  a  French  dealer  advised  those  who 
framed  the  catalogue.  But  the  fact  is  that  if  a  man  once  narrows 
his  mind  to  three  or  four  makers,  and  imagines  they  monopolize 
excellence,  he  never  can  be  a  judge  of  old  instruments,  the 
study  is  so  wide  and  his  mind  artificially  narrowed.  Example 
of  this  false  method  :  Mr.  Faulconer  sends  in  a  bass,  which  he 
calls  Andreas  Guarnerius.  An  adviser  does  not  see  that,  and 
suggests  "probably  by  Amiti."  Now  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
'•'probably  by  Amati,"  any  more  than  there  is  probably  the  sun 
or  the  moon.  That  bass  is  by  David  Tecchler,  of  Rome ;  but 
it  is  a  masterpiece ;  and  so,  because  he  has  done  better  than 
usual,  the  poor  devil  is  to  be  robbed  of  his  credit,  and  it  is  to 
be  given,  first  to  one  maker  ivlw  is  in  the  ritig  and  then  to  another, 
rv/io  is  in  the  ring.  The  basso  di  camera,  which  not  being  in 
the  ring,  comes  without  a  name,  is  by  Domenico  Montagnana 
of  Venice,  the  greatest  maker  of  basses  in  all  Venice  or  Cre- 
mona except  one.  If  this  bass  had  only  a  decent  piece  of  wood 
at  the  back,  it  would  extinguish  all  the  other  basses.  But  we 
can  remedy  that  defect.  Basses  by  this  maker  exist  with  fine 
wood.  Mr.  Hart,  senior,  sold  one  some  twenty  years  ago  with 
yellow  varnish,  and  wood  striped  like  a  tiger's  back.  Should 
these  lines  meet  the  eye  of  the  purchaser,  I  shall  feel  grateful 
if  he  will  communicate  with  me  thereupon. 


CREMONA    FIDDLES  27 


I  come  now  to  the  last  of  the  Goths,  thus  catalogued,  No. 
100,  "ascribed  to  Guarnerius.      Probably  by  Storioni." 

Lorenzo  Storioni  is  a  maker  who  began  to  work  at  Cremona 
about  1780.  He  has  a  good  model  but  wretched  spirit  varnish. 
Violin  No.  loo  is  something  much  better.  It  is  a  violin  made 
before  1760  by  Landolfo  of  Milan.  He  is  a  maker  well  known 
to  experienced  dealers  who  can  take  their  minds  out  of  the  ring, 
but,  as  the  writers  seem  a  little  confused,  and  talk  of  two 
Landulphs,  a  Charles  and  a  Ferdinand,  I  may  as  well  say  here 
that  the  two  are  one.     This  is  the  true  ticket : — 

Carolus  Ferdinandus  I,andulphus, 
fecit  Mediolani  in  via  S.  Mar- 
garitce,  anno   1756. 

Stiff  inner  bought  really  something  like  Joseph  Guarnerius ;  but 
all  the  rest  quite  unlike  :  scroll  very  mean,  varnish  good,  and 
sometimes  very  fine.  Mr.  Moore's,  in  point  of  varnish,  is  a  fine 
specimen.  It  has  a  deeper,  nobler  tint  than  usual.  This  maker 
is  very  interesting,  on  account  of  his  being  absolutely  the  last 
Italian  who  used  the  glorious  varnish  of  Cremona.  It  died  first 
at  Cremona  :  lingered  a  year  or  two  more  at  Venice ;  Landolfo 
retained  it  at  Milan  till  1760,  and  with  him  it  ended. 

In  my  next  and  last  article  I  will  deal  with  the  varnish  of 
Cremona,  as  illustrated  by  No.  91  and  other  specimens,  and 
will  enable  the  curious  to  revive  that  lost  art  if  they  choose. 


28  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


FOURTH    LETTER, 


August  31st,  1812. 


(^^^'HE  fiddles  of  Cremona  gained  their  reputation  by  superior 
/■  I  ]  tone,  but  they  hold  it  now  mainly  by  their  beauty.  For 
^^  thirty  years  past  violins  have  been  made  equal  in  model 
to  the  chef-d'oeuvres  of  Cremona,  and  stronger  in  wood  than 
Stradiuarius,  and  more  scientific  than  Guarnerius  in  the  thicknesses. 
This  of  class  violin  is  hideous,  but  has  one  quality  in  perfection — 
Power  ;  whilst  the  masterpieces  of  Cremona  eclipse  every  new 
violin  in  sweetness,  oiliness,  crispness,  and  volume  of  tone  as 
distinct  from  loudness.  Age  has  dried  their  vegetable  juices, 
making  the  carcass  much  lighter  than  that  of  a  new  violin,  and 
those  light  dry  frames  vibrate  at  a  touch. 

But  M.  Fetis  goes  too  far  when  he  intimates  that  Stradiuarius 
is  louder  as  well  as  sweeter  than  Lupot,  Gand,  or  Bemardel. 
Take  a  hundred  violins  by  Stradiuarius  and  open  them  ;  you 
find  about  ninty-five  patched  in  the  centre  with  new  wood. 
The  connecting  link  is  a  sheet  of  glue.  And  is  glue  a  fine 
resonant  substance  ?  And  are  the  glue  and  the  new  wood  of 
John  Bull  and  Jean  Crapaud  transmogrified  into  the  wood  of 
Stradiuarius  by  merely  sticking  on  to  it  ?  Is  it  not  extravagant 
to  quote  patched  violins  as  beyond  rivalry  in  all  the  qualities 
of  sound  ?  How  can  they  be  the  loudest,  when  the  centre  of  the 
sound-board  is  a  mere  sandwich,  composed  of  the  maker's  thin 
wood,  a  buttering  of  glue,  and  a  huge  slice  of  new  wood  ? 

Joseph  Guarnerius  has  plenty  of  wood  ;  but  his  thicknesses  are 
not  always  so  scientific  as  those  of  the  best  modern  fiddle-makers ; 
so  that  even  he  can  be  rivalled  in  power  by  a  new  violin, 
though  not  in  richness  and  sweetness.  Consider,  then,  these 
two  concurrent  phenomena,  that  for  twenty-five  years  new  violins 
have  been  better  made  for  sound  than  they  ever  were  made  in  this 
world,  yet  old  Cremona  violins  have  nearly  doubled  in  price, 
and,  you  will  divine,  as  the  truth  is,  that  old  fiddles  are  not 
bought  by  the  ear  alone.     I  will  add  that  loo  years  ago,  when 


CREMONA    FIDDLES  29 


the  violins  of  Brescia  and  of  Stradiuarius  and  (iuarnerius  were 
the  only  well-modelled  violins,  they  were  really  bought  by  the 
ear,  and  the  prices  were  moderate.  Now  they  are  in  reality 
bought  by  the  eye,  and  the  price  is  enormous.  The  reason  is 
that  their  tone  is  good  but  their  appearance  inimitable  ;  because 
the  makers  chose  fine  wood  and  laid  on  a  varnish  highly 
coloured,  yet  clear  as  crystal,  with  this  strange  property — it 
becomes  far  more  beautiful  by  time  and  usage  :  it  wears  softly 
away,  or  chips  boldly  away,  in  such  forms  as  to  make  the  whole 
violin  picturesque,  beautiful,  various,  and  curious. 

To  approach  the  same  conclusion  by  a  different  road — No. 
94  is  a  violin  whose  picturesque  beauty  I  have  described  already ; 
twenty-five  years  ago  Mr.  Plowden  gave  ;!^45o  for  it.  It  is  now, 
I  suppose,  worth  ^^500.  Well,  knock  that  violin  down  and 
crack  it  in  two  places,  it  will  sink  that  moment  to  the  value  of 
the  "violon  du  diable,"  and  be  worth  /^t,S°-  ^^^  collect 
twenty  amateurs  all  ready  to  buy  it,  and,  instead  of  cracking  it, 
dip  it  into  a  jar  of  spirits  and  wash  the  varnish  off.  Not  one 
of  those  customers  will  give  you  above  ;!{^4o  for  it ;  nor  would 
it  in  reality  be  worth  quite  so  much  in  the  market.  Take 
another  example.  There  is  a  beautiful  and  very  perfect  vio- 
lin by  Stradiuarius,  which  the  Times,  in  an  article  on  these 
instruments,  calls  La  Messie.  These  leading  journals  have 
private  information  on  every  subject,  even  grammar.  I  prefer 
to  call  it— after  the  very  intelligent  man  to  whom  we  owe  the 
sight  of  it — the  Vuillaume  Stradiuarius.  Well,  the  Vuillaume 
Stradiuarius  is  worth,  as  times  go,  ^600  at  least.  Wash  off  the 
varnish,  it  would  be  worth  ^35  ;  because,  unlike  No.  94,  it 
has  one  little  crack.  As  a  further  illustration  that  violins  are 
heard  by  the  eye,  let  me  .remind  your  readers  of  the  high  prices 
at  which  numberless  copies  of  the  old  makers  were  sold  in 
Paris  for  many  years.  The  inventors  of  this  art  undertook  to 
deliver  a  new  violin,  that  in  usage  and  colour  of  the  worn  parts 
should  be  exactly  like  an  old  and  worn  violin  of  some  favourite 
maker.  Now,  to  do  this  with  white  wood  was  impossible;  so 
the  wood  was  l)aked  in  the  oven  or  coloured  yellow  with  the 
smoke  of  sulphuric  acid,  or  so  forth,  to  give  it  the  colour  of  age; 
but  these  processes  kill  the  wood  as  a  vehicle  of  sound  ;  and 
these  copies  were,  and  are,  the  worst  musical  instruments  Europe 
has  created  in  this  century  ;  and,  bad  as  they  are  at  starting,  they 
get  worse  every  year  of  their  untuncful  existence;  yet,  because 


30  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


they  flattered  the  eye  with  something  like  the  Hght  and  shade  and 
picturesqueness  of  the  Cremona  vioHn,  these  pseudo-antiques, 
though  inimitable  in  number,  sold  like  wildfire;  and  hundreds 
of  self-deceivers  heard  them  by  the  eye,  and  fancied  these  tin- 
pots  sounded  divinely.  The  hideous  red  violins  of  Bernardel, 
Gand,  and  an  English  maker  or  two,  are  a  reaction  against 
those  copies;  they  are  made  honestly  with  white  wood,  and  they 
will,  at  all  events,  improve  in  sound  every  year  and  every  decade. 
It  comes  to  this,  then,  that  the  varnish  of  Cremona,  as  operated 
on  by  time  and  usage,  has  an  inimitable  beauty,  and  we  pay  a 
high  price  for  it  in  second-class  makers,  and  an  enormous  price 
in  a  fine  Stradiuarius  or  Joseph  Guarnerius.  No  wonder,  then, 
that  many  violin-makers  have  tried  hard  to  discover  the  secret 
of  this  varnish ;  many  chemists  have  given  days  and  nights  of 
anxious  study  to  it.  More  than  once,  even  in  my  time,  hopes 
have  run  high,  but  only  to  fall  again.  Some  have  even  cried 
Eureka  !  to  the  public  :  but  the  moment  others  looked  at  their 
discovery  and  compared  it  with  the  real  thing,  "inextinguishable 
laughter  shook  the  skies."  At  last  despair  has  succeeded  to  all 
that  energetic  study,  and  the  varnish  of  Cremona  is  sullenly  given 
up  as  a  lost  art. 

I  have  heard  and  read  a  great  deal  about  it,  and  I  think  I 
can  state  the  principal  theories  briefly,  but  intelligibly. 

1.  It  used  be  to  stoutly  maintained  that  the  basis  was  amber ; 
that  these  old  Italians  had  the  art  of  infusing  amber  without  im- 
pairing its  transparency ;  once  fused,  by  dry  heat,  it  could  be  boiled 
into  a  varnish  with  oil  and  spirit  of  turpentine,  and  combined 
with  transparent  yet  lasting  colours.  To  convince  me,  they 
used  to  rub  the  worn  part  of  a  Cremona  with  their  sleeves,  and 
then  put  the  fiddle  to  their  noses,  and  smell  amber.  Then  I 
burning  with  love  of  knowledge,  used  to  rub  the  fiddle  very 
hard  and  whip  it  to  my  nose,  and  not  smell  amber.  But  that 
might  arise  in  some  measure  from  there  not  being  any  amber 
there  to  smell.  (N.B. — These  amber-seeking  worthies  never 
rubbed  the  coloured  varnish  on  an  old  violin.  Yet  their  theory 
had  placed  amber  there.) 

2.  That  time  does  it  all.  The  violins  of  Stradiuarius  were 
raw,  crude  things  at  starting,  and  the  varnish  rather  opaque. 

3.  Two  or  three  had  the  courage  to  say  it  was  spirit  varnish, 
and  alleged  in  proof  that  if  you  drop  a  drop  of  alcohol  on  a 
Stradiuarius,  it  tears  the  varnish  off  aS  it  runs. 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


4.  The  far  more  prevalent  notion  was  that  it  is  an  oil  varnish, 
in  support  of  which  they  pointed  to  the  rich  ai)pearance  of  what 
they  call  the  bare  wood,  and  contrasted  the  miserable  hungry 
appearance  of  the  wood  in  all  old  violins  known  to  be  spirit 
varnished — for  instance,  Nicholas  Gagliano,  of  Naples,  and  Jean 
Baptiste  Guadagnini,  of  Piacenza,  Italian  makers  contemporary 
with  Joseph  Guarnerius. 

5  That  the  secret  has  been  lost  by  adulteration.  The  old 
Cremonese  and  Venetians  got  pure  and  sovereign  gums,  that 
have  retired  from  commerce. 

Now,  as  to  theory  No.  i.  —  Surely  amber  is  too  dear  a  gum 
and  too  impracticable  for  two  hundred  fiddle-makers  to  have 
used  in  Italy.  Till  fused  by  dry  heat  it  is  no  more  soluble 
in  varnish  than  quartz  is ;  and  who  can  fuse  it  ?  Copal  is 
inclined  to  melt,  but  amber  to  burn,  catch  fire,  do  anything  but 
melt.  Put  the  two  gums  to  a  lighted  candle,  you  will  then 
appreciate  the  difference.  I  tried  more  than  one  chemist  in 
the  fusing  of  amber ;  it  came  out  of  their  hands  a  dark  brown 
opaque  substance,  rather  burnt  than  fused.  When  really  fused  it 
is  a  dark  olive  green,  as  clear  as  crystal.  Yet  I  never  knew  but  one 
man  who  could  bring  it  to  this,  and  he  had  special  machinery, 
invented  by  himself,  for  it ;  in  spite  of  which  he  nearly  burnt 
down  his  house  at  it  one  day.  I  believe  the  whole  amber 
theory  comes  out  of  a  verbal  equivoque ;  the  varnish  of  the 
Amati  was  called  amber  to  mark  its  rich  colour,  and  your  a  priori 
reasoners  went  off  on  that,  forgetting  that  amber  must  be  an 
inch  thick  to  exhibit  the  colour  amber.  By  such  reasoning  as 
this  Mr.  Davidson,  in  a  book  of  great  general  merit,  is  misled  so 
far  as  to  put  down  powdered  glass  for  an  ingredient  in  Cremona 
varnish.  Mark  the  logic.  Glass  in  a  sheet  is  transparent ;  so 
if  you  reduce  it  to  powder  it  \\\\\  add  transparency  to  varnish. 
Imposed  on  by  this  chimera,  he  actually  puts  powdered  glass, 
an  opaque  and  insoluble  sediment,  into  four  receipts  for  Cre- 
mona varnish. 

But  the  theories  2,  3,  4,  5  have  all  a  good  deal  of  truth  in 
them ;  their  fault  is  that  they  are  too  narrow,  and  too  blintl  to 
the  truth  of  each  other.      In   this,  as   in   every  .scientikic 

INQUIRY,    THE     TRUE     SOLUTION     IS     THAT    WHICH     RECONCILES 
ALL    THE    TRUTHS    THAT    SEEM    AT    VARIANCE. 

The  way  to  discover  a  lost  art,  once  practised  with  variations  by 
a  hundred  people,  is  to  examine  very  closely  the  most  brilliant 


32  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


specimen,  the  most  characteristic  specimen,  and,  indeed,  the 
most  extravagant  specimen — if  you  can  find  one.  I  took  that 
way,  and  I  found  in  the  chippiest  varnish  of  Stradiuarius,  viz., 
his  dark  red  varnish,  the  key  to  all  the  varnish  of  Cremona, 
red  or  yellow.  (N.B. — The  yellow  always  beat  me  dead,  till  I 
got  to  it  by  this  detour.)  There  is  no  specimen  in  the  collection 
of  this  red  varnish  so  violent  as  I  have  seen  ;  but  Mr.  Pawle's 
bass,  No.  187,  will  do.  Please  walk  with  me  up  to  the  back 
of  that  bass,  and  let  us  disregard  all  hypotheses  and  theories, 
and  use  our  eyes.  What  do  we  see  before  us  ?  A  bass  with 
a  red  varnish  that  chips  very  readily  off  what  people  call  the 
bare  wood.  But  never  mind  what  these  echoes  of  echoes  call 
it.  What  t's  it  ?  It  is  not  bare  wood.  Bare  wood  turns  a  dirty 
brown  with  age.  This  is  a  rich  and  lovely  yellow.  By  its 
colour  and  its  glassy  gloss,  and  by  disbeUeving  what  echoes 
say  and  trusting  only  to  our  eyes,  we  may  see  at  a  glance  it 
is  not  bare  wood,  but  highly  varnished  wood.  This  varnish  is 
evidently  oil,  and  contains  a  gum.  Allowing  for  the  tendency 
of  oil  to  run  into  the  wood,  I  should  's.'A.y  foia-  coats  of  oil  varnish: 
and  this  they  call  the  bare  wood.  We  have  now  discovered 
the  first  process  :  a  clear  oil  varnish  laid  on  the  white  wood 
with  some  transparent  gum  not  high  coloured.  Now  proceed 
a  step  further;  the  red  and  chippy  varnish,  what  is  that? 
"Oh,  that  is  a  varnish  of  the  same  quality  but  another  colour," 
say  the  theorists  No.  4.  "How  do  you  know?"  say  I.  "It  is 
self-evident.  Would  a  man  begin  with  oil  varnish  and  then  go 
into  spirit  varnish  ?"  is  their  reply.  Now  observe,  this  is  not 
humble  observation,  it  is  only  rational  preconception.  But  if 
discovery  has  an  enemy  in  the  human  mind,  that  enemy  is 
preconception.  Let  us  then  trust  only  to  humble  observation. 
Here  is  a  clear  varnish  without  the  ghost  of  a  chip  in  its 
nature  ;  and  upon  it  is  a  red  varnish  that  is  all  chip.  Does 
that  look  as  if  the  two  varnishes  were  homogeneous  ?  Is 
chip  precisely  the  s^me  thing  as  no  chip  ?  If  homogeneous, 
there  would  be  chemical  affinity  between  the  two.  But  this 
extreme  readiness  of  the  red  varnish  to  chip  away  from  the 
clear  marks  a  defect  of  chemical  affinity  between  the  two. 
Why,  if  you  were  to  put  your  thumbnail  against  that  red 
varnish,  a  little  piece  would  come  away  directly.  This  is  not 
so  in  any  known  case  of  oil  upon  oil.  Take  old  Forster, 
for  instance  .   he  begins  with  clear  oil  varnish ;    then   on  that 


CREMONA    FIDDLES  ^;^ 


he  puts  a  distinct  oil  varnish  with  the  colour  and  transparency 
of^pea-soup.  You  will  not  get  his  pea-soup  to  chip  off  his  clear 
varnish  in  a  hurrj'.  There  is  a  bass  by  William  Forster  in  the 
collection  a  hundred  years  old  ;  but  the  wear  is  confined  to  the 
places  where  the  top  varnish  must  go  in  a  played  bass.  Every- 
where else  his  pea-soup  sticks  tight  to  his  clear  varnish,  being 
oil  upon  oil. 

Now,  take  a  perfectly  distinct  line  of  observation.  In  var- 
nishes oil  is  a  diluent  of  colour.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  man 
to  charge  an  oil  varnish  with  colour  so  highly  as  the  top  varnish 
of  Mr.  Pawle's  bass  is  charged.  And  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  clear  varnish  below  has  filled  all  the  pores  of  the  wood ; 
therefore  the  diluent  cannot  escape  into  the  wood,  and  so  leave 
the  colour  undiluted  ;  if  that  red  varnish  was  ever  oil  varnish, 
ever}^  partical  of  the  oil  must  be  there  still.  What,  in  that 
mere  film  so  crammed  with  colour  ?  Never !  Nor  yet  in 
the  top  varnish  of  the  Spanish  bass,  which  is  thinner  still,  yet 
more  charged  with  colour  than  any  topaz  of  twice  the  thickness. 
This,  then,  is  how  Antonius  Stradiuarius  varnished  Mr.  Pawle's 
bass. — He  began  with  three  or  four  coats  of  oil  varnish  contain- 
ing some  common  gum.  He  then  laid  on  several  coats  of  red 
varnish,  made  by  simply  dissolving  some  fine  red  unadulterated 
gum  in  spirit ;  the  spirit  evaporated  and  left  pure  gum  lying  on 
a  rich  oil  varnish,  from  which  it  chips  by  its  dry  nature  and  its 
utter  want  of  chemical  affinity  to  the  substratum.  On  the 
Spanish  bass  Stradiuarius  put  not  more,  I  think,  than  two  coats 
of  oil  varnish,  and  then  a  spirit  varnish  consisting  of  a  different 
gum,  less  chippy,  but  even  more  tender  and  wearable  than  the 
red.  Now  take  this  key  all  round  the  room,  and  you  will  find 
there  is  not  a  lock  it  will  not  open.  Look  at  the  varnish  on 
the  back  ot  the  "violon  du  diable,"  as  it  is  called.  There  is 
a  top  varnish  with  all  the  fire  of  a  topaz  and  far  more  colour ; 
for  slice  the  deepest  topaz  to  that  thinness,  it  would  pale  be- 
fore that  varnish.  And  why?  ist.  Because  this  is  no  oily 
dilution;  it  is  a  divine  unadulterated  gum,  left  there  undiluted 
by  evaporation  of  the  spirituous  vehicle.  2nd.  Because  this 
varnish  is  a  jewel  with  the  advantage  of  a  foil  behind  it;  that 
foil  is  the  fine  oil  varnish  underneath.  The  purest  specimen  of 
Stradiuarius's  red  varnish  in  the  room  is,  perhaps,  Mr.  Fountaine's 
kit.  Look  at  the  back  of  it  by  the  light  of  these  remarks.  What 
can  be  plainer  than  the  clear  oil  varnish  with  not  the  ghost  of 


34  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


a  chip  in  it,  and  the  glossy  top  varnish,  so  charged  with  colour, 
and  so  ready  to  chip  from  the  varnish  below,  for  want  of  chemical 
affinity  between  the  varnishes  ?  The  basso  di  camera  by 
Montagnana  is  the  same  thing.  See  the  bold  wear  on  the  back 
revealing  the  heterogeneous  varnish  below  the  red.  They  are 
all  the  same  thing.  The  palest  violins  of  Stradiuarius  and  Amati 
are  much  older  and  harder  worn  than  Mr.  Pawle's  bass,  and 
the  top  varnish  not  of  a  chippy  character :  yet  look  at  them 
closely  by  the  light  of  these  remarks,  and  you  shall  find  one  of 
two  phenomena — ^either  the  tender  top  varnish  has  all  been  worn 
away,  and  so  there  is  nothing  to  be  inferred  one  way  or  other, 
or  else  there  are  flakes  of  it  left ;  and,  if  so,  these  flakes,  however 
thin,  shall  always  betray,  by  the  superior  vividness  of  their  colour 
to  the  colour  of  the  subjacent  oil  varnish,  that  they  are  not  oil 
varnish,  but  pure  gum  left  there  by  evaporating  spirit  on  a  foil  of 
beautiful  old  oil  varnish.  Take  Mrs.  Jay's  Amatise  Stradiuarius; 
on  the  back  of  that  violin  towards  the  top  there  is  a  mere  flake 
of  top  varnish  left  by  itself;  all  round  it  is  nothing  left  but  the 
bottom  varnish.  That  fragment  of  top  varnish  is  a  film  thinner 
than  gold  leaf;  yet  look  at  ^ts  intensity;  it  lies  on  the  fine  old 
oil  varnish  like  fixed  lightning,  it  is  so  vivid.  It  is  just  as 
distinct  from  the  oil  varnish  as  is  the  red  varnish  of  the  kit. 
Examine  the  Duke  of  Cambridge's  violin,  or  any  other  Cremona 
instrument  in  the  whole  world  you  like  ;  it  is  always  the  same 
thing,  though  not  so  self-evident  as  in  the  red  and  chippy 
varnishes.  The  Vuillaume  Stradiuarius,  not  being  worn,  does 
not  assist  us  in  this  particular  line  of  argument ;  but  it  does  not 
contradict  us.  Indeed,  there  are  a  few  litttle  chips  in  the  top 
varnish  of  the  back,  and  they  reveal  a  heterogeneous  varnish 
below,  with  its  rich  yellow  colour  like  the  bottom  varnish  of 
the  Pawle  bass.  Moreover,  if  you  look  at  the  top  varnish 
closely  you  shall  see  what  you  never  see  in  a  new  violin  of  our 
day;  not  a  vulgar  glare  upon  the  surface,  but  a  gentle  inward 
fire.  Now  that  inward  fire,  I  assure  you,  is  mainly  caused 
by  the  oil  varnish  below ;  the  orange  varnish  above  has  a 
heterogeneous  foil  below.  That  inward  glow  is  characteristic 
of  all  foils.  If  you  could  see  the  Vuillaume  Stradiuarius  at 
night  and  move  it  about  in  the  light  of  a  candle,  you  would  be 
amazed  at  the  fire  of  the  foil  and  the  refraction  of  light. 

Thus,  then,  it  is.    The  unlucky  phrase  "varnish  of  Cremona" 
has  weakened  men's  powers  of  observation   by  fixing  a  pre- 


CREMONA    FIDDLES 


conceived  notion  tliat  the  vamish  must  be  all  one  thing.     The 

LOST  SECRET  IS  THIS.  ThE  CrEMONA  VARNISH  IS  NOT  A 
VARNISH,  BUT  TWO  VARNISHES;  AND  THOSE  VARNISHES  ALWAYS 
HETEROGENEOUS  :  THAT  IS  TO  SAY,  FIRST  THE  PORES  OF  THE 
WOOD  ARE  FILLED  AND  THE  GRAIN  SHOWN  UP  BY  ONE,  BY  TWO, 
BY  THREE,  AND  SOMETIMES,  THOUGH  RARELY,  BY  FOUR  COATS 
OF    FINE   OIL  VARNISH  WITH    SOME   COMMON    BUT   CLEAR  GUM   IN 

SOLUTION.      Then   upon  this   oil   varnish,   when   dry,   is 

LAID  A  HETEROGENEOUS  VARNISH,  VIZ.  A  SOLUTION  IN  SPIRIT 
OF    SOM,E    SOVEREIGN,    HIGH    COLOURED,    PELLUCID,    AND,    ABOVE 

ALL,  TENDER  GUM.  Gum-lac,  which  for  forty  years  has  been  the 
mainstay  of  violin-makers,  must  never  be  used  ;  not  one  atom 
of  it.  That  vile,  flinty  gum  killed  varnish  at  Naples  and  Piacenza 
a  hundred  and  forty  years  ago,  as  it  kills  varnish  now.  Old 
Cremona  shunned  it,  and  whoever  employs  a  grain  of  it,  commits 
wilful  suicide  as  a  Cremonese  varnisher.  It  will  not  wear ;  it 
will  not  chip  ;  it  is  in  every  respect  the  opposite  of  the  Cremona 
gums.  Avoid  it  utterly,  or  fail  hopelessly,  as  all  varnishers  have 
failed  since  that  fatal  gum  came  in.  The  deep  red  varnish  of 
Cremona  is  pure  dragon's  blood ;  not  the  cake,  the  stick,  the 
filthy  trash,  which,  in  this  sinful  and  adulterating  generation,  is 
retailed  under  that  name,  but  the  tear  of  dragon's  blood,  little 
lumps  deeper  in  colour  than  a  carbuncle,  clear  as  crystal,  and 
fiery  as  a  ruby.  Unadulterated  dragon's  blood  does  not  exist 
in  commerce  west  of  Temple-bar ;  but  you  can  get  it  by 
groi)ing  in  the  City  as  hard  as  Diogenes  had  to  gi-ope  for  an 
honest  man  in  a  much  less  knavish  town  than  London.  The 
yellow  varnish  is  the  unadulterated  tear  of  another  gum,  retailed 
in  a  cake  like  dragon's  blood,  and  as  great  a  fraud.  All  cakes 
and  sticks  presented  to  you  in  commerce  as  gums  are  audacious 
swindles.  A  true  gum  is  the  tear  of  a  tree.  For  the  yellow  tear, 
as  for  the  red,  grope  the  City  harder  than  Diogenes.  The 
orange  varnish  of  Peter  Guarnerius  and  Stradiuarius  is  only  a 
mixture  of  these  two  genuine  gums.  Even  the  milder  reds  of 
Stradiuarius  are  slightly  reduced  with  the  yellow  gum.  The 
Montagnana  bass  and  No.  94  are  i)ure  dragon's  blood, 
mellowed  down  by  time  and  exposure  only. 

A  violin  varnished  as  I  have  indicated  will  look  a  little  bcltrr 
tlian  other  new  violins  from  the  first;  the  back  will  look  nc;ir!y 
as  well  as  the  Vuillaume  Stradiuarius,  but  not  (|uile.  The  belly 
will  look  a  little  better  if  properly  prepared;  will  show  the  fil)ie 


36  CREMONA    FIDDLES 


of  the  deal  better.  But  its  principal  merit  is,  that  hke  the  vioHns 
of  Cremona,  it  will  vastly  improve  in  beauty  if  much  exposed 
and  persistently  played.  And  that  improvement  will  be  rapid, 
because  the  tender  top  varnish  will  wear  away  from  the  oily 
substratum  four  times  as  quickly  as  any  vulgar  varnish  of  the 
day  will  chip  or  wear.  We  cannot  do  what  Stradiuanus  could 
not  do^ — give  to  a  new  violin  the  peculiar  beauty,  that  comes  to 
the  heterogeneous  varnishes  of  Cremona  from  age  and  honest 
wear;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
one  hundred  years  are  required  to  develop  the  beauty  of  any 
Cremona  varnishes,  old  or  new.  The  ordinary  wear  of  a 
century  cannot  be  condensed  into  one  year  or  five,  but  it  can 
be  condensed  into  twenty  years.  Any  young  amateur  may  live 
to  play  on  a  magnificent  Cremona  made  for  himself,  if  he  has 
the  enthusiasm  to  follow  my  directions.  Choose  the  richest 
and  finest  wood ;  have  the  violin  made  after  the  pattern  of  a 
rough  Joseph  Guarnerius  ;  then  you  need  not  sand-paper  the 
back,  sides,  or  head,  for  sand-paper  is  a  great  enemy  to  varnish : 
it  drives  more  wood-dust  into  the  pores  than  you  can  blow  out. 
If  you  sand-paper  the  belly,  sponge  that  finer  dust  out,  as  far 
as  possible,  and  varnish  when  dry.  That  will  do  no  harm,  and 
throw  up  the  fibre.  Make  your  own  linseed  oil — the  linseed 
oil  of  commerce  is  adulterated  with  animal  oil  and  fish  oil, 
which  are  non-drying  oils — and  varnish  as  I  have  indicated 
above,  and  when  the  violin  is  strung  treat  it  regularly  with  a 
view  to  fast  wear;  let  it  hang  up  in  a  warm  place,  exposed  to 
dry  air,  night  and  day.  Never  let  it  be  shut  up  in  a  case  except 
for  transport.  Lend  it  for  months  to  the  leader  of  an  orchestra. 
Look  after  it,  and  see  that  it  is  constantly  played  and  constantly 
exposed  to  dry  air  all  about  it.  Never  clean  it,  never  touch  it 
with  a  silk  handkerchief.  In  twenty  years  your  heterogeneous 
varnishes  will  have  parted  company  in  many  places.  The  back 
will  be  worn  quite  picturesque ;  the  belly  will  look  as  old  as 
Joseph  Guarnerius ;  there  will  be  a  delicate  film  on  the  surface 
of  the  grand  red  varnish  mellowed  by  exposure,  and  a  marvellous 
fire  below.  In  a  word,  you  will  have  a  glorious  Cremona  fiddle. 
Do  you  aspire  to  do  more,  and  to  make  a  downright  old 
Cremona  violin  ?  Then,  my  young  swell,  you  must  treat  yourself 
as  well  as  the  violin ;  you  must  not  smoke  all  day,  nor  the  last 
thing  at  night ;  you  must  never  take  a  dram  before  dinner  and 
call  it  bitters ;  you  must  be  as  true  to  your  spouse  as  ever  you 


CREMONA    FIDDLES  37 


can,  and,  in  a  word,  live  moderately,  and  cultivate  good  temper 
and  avoid  great  wrath.  By  these  means,  Deo  volente,  you 
shall  live  to  see  the  violin  that  was  made  for  you  and  varnished 
by  my  receipt,  as  old  and  worn  and  beautiful  a  Cremona  as  the 
Joseph  Guarnerius  No.  94,  beyond  which  nothing  can  go. 

To  show  the  fiddle-maker  what  may  be  gained  by  using  as 
little  sand-paper  as  possible,  let  him  buy  a  little  of  Maunder's 
palest  copal  varnish ;  then  let  him  put  a  piece  of  deal  on  his 
bench  and  take  a  few  shavings  off  it  with  a  carpenter's  plane. 
Let  him  lay  his  varnish  directly  on  the  wood  so  planed.  It 
will  have  a  fire  and  a  beauty  he  will  never  quite  attain  to  by 
scraping,  sand-papering,  and  then  varnishing  the  same  wood  with 
the  .same  varnish.  And  this  applies  to  harewood  as  well  as 
deal.  The  back  of  the  Vuillaume  Stradiuarius,  which  is  the 
finest  part,  has  clearly  not  been  sand-papered  in  i)laces,  so 
probably  not  at  all.  Wherever  it  is  possible,  varnish  after  cold 
steel,  at  all  events  in  imitating  the  Cremonese,  and  especially 
Joseph  Guarnerius.  These,  however,  are  minor  details,  which 
I  have  only  inserted,  because  I  foresee  that  I  may  be  unable  to 
return  to  this  subject  in  writing,  though  I  shall  be  very  happy 
to  talk  about  it  at  my  own  place  to  any  one  who  really  cares 
about  the  matter.  However,  it  is  not  every  day  one  can  restore 
a  lost  art  to  the  world  ;  and  I  hope  that,  and  my  anxiety  not 
to  do  it  by  halves,  will  excuse  this  prolix  article. 

CHARLES  READK. 

2  Albert  Terrace,  Kiiightshridge. 


J'JII.N    BELLOWS,    STEAM    I'HESS,    GLOUCBSTEU. 


ALEXANDER  BROUDE.  INC 


UCLA  -  Music  Library 

ML  830  R221C  1873a 


L  007  007  891   0 


ML 
850 

H221C 
l873a 


UC  SOliTHf  •?■, 


AA    000  529  295    8 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

JUN  191970  ,     ^      , 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  ogQ^ifjjU^tfl^tamped  below 


Aijs  2  .  !d70 


RECTD  MUSUB    ,/ 

QEGb     vd/0\iij 


Jft^[?2-^973 

JUL  261 

JUL  1  6  1974 
REC'O  M  US-LIB 

FEB  -  4  1975 

JAN    '  laal 

N0V2K  1^ 


FEB    4  1991 

JUL  It  1994 


Form  L9-Seric8  4939 


\jiiiversi1 
South' 
Libri 


